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Real Estate Finance - Lenders

ArentFox Schiff offers a range of services to our lender clients who are regularly involved in large, complex financial transactions.

Our Focus

We represent banks, insurance companies, savings and loan institutions, private debt funds, construction lenders, REIT’s and public pension funds on a variety of single asset transactions and large multijurisdictional portfolio financings. We provide counsel to several lenders in the making of numerous and varied senior and mezzanine loans, preferred equity investments and B-Note purchases covering a wide range of projects, including multifamily projects, retail, condominiums, office, hotels, industrial and other commercial properties.

Services include:

  • Structuring of project transactions
  • Generating documents
  • Reviewing and analyzing due diligence
  • Negotiating loans
  • Advising on collateral and credit enhancement, letters of credit, guarantees, swap agreements, caps, debentures, warrants, participating interests, inter-creditor, co-lender, and subordination agreements

Senior Debt

With strength in representing financial institutions, debt-side funds, and other investors making loans to finance or construct real estate projects, our attorneys have significant lender-side experience in the origination, purchase, disposition, and restructuring of complex senior debt loans including non-recourse loans and CMBS securitized loans.

Mezzanine Financing and Preferred Equity

Representing lenders, we have created mezzanine loan programs and transaction documents for numerous mezzanine lending clients. Our documents were developed with specific attention to the exercise of remedies in the mezzanine transaction and the relationship of those remedies to the rights and remedies of the senior lenders to provide for the greatest rights and flexibility for the mezzanine lender or borrower.

In negotiating the intercreditor agreements between senior lenders and mezzanine lenders, our lawyers are trained to address a wide array of intercreditor issues, the scope of different mezzanine lenders’ collateral packages, a diverse array of creative mezzanine structures, the tax implication of preferred equity structures, and the underlying mezzanine structure documents.

Tax-Exempt Bond Financing

We represent banks on a variety of nonprofit municipal financing and commercial lending matters ranging from financing improvements at private schools to providing non-profits with funding to execute their missions.

Perspectives on Real Estate Finance - Lenders

Our Work

Representative matters include:

  • Pacific Western Bank on over $3 billion in real estate finance transactions covering a broad range of asset classes, including:
    • Approximately $180 million in senior and leverage financing for a DC hotel and multifamily mixed-use development project.
    • $180 million luxury condo construction loan in New York, NY.
    • $130 million senior loan to a joint venture for the redevelopment of a former pharmaceutical campus in New Jersey.
    • $121 million mall construction and redevelopment in Florida.
    • $38.5 million senior loan for retail property in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
    • $19.5 million senior loan secured for a portfolio of single-family homes.
    • $50 million loan for a joint venture on a data center and office complex in Vienna, Virginia.
    • $35 million senior and $14 million mezzanine loans for the development of a residential condominium project in Northwest Washington, DC.
    • $45 million construction loan secured by a condominium project located in Southeast Washington, DC.
    • $45 million senior construction loan for a hotel property in California, with a $10 million mezzanine loan.
    • $45 million leverage loan on a $49 million refinancing of a newly constructed multifamily property in New York City. The leverage loan originated with the mortgage loan.
    • $48 million senior mortgage loan to a real estate investment fund secured by a portfolio of 19 industrial buildings comprising 4.5 million square feet.
  • New York Life Insurance Company on a $125 million mortgage secured by a Washington, DC, Class-A office building, and a $48 million mortgage secured by multiple industrial offices and flex-warehouse buildings in Virginia.
  • Forbright Bank on a broad range of middle-market construction and bridge loans, including a $20 million refinancing of a grocery-anchored retail center in the Mount Clare area of Baltimore, Maryland, a $42 million luxury hotel construction loan for a property to be developed in Florida, and the $25 million acquisition of a multifamily property in Southfield, Michigan.
  • Goldman Sachs on a range of construction, acquisition, and mortgage loans, including the sale of a shopping mall in California and as Agent and Lenders in the seller financing of a senior mortgage facility to the purchaser of the asset (also represented Goldman Sachs’ equity partners), a $106 million construction mortgage loan in Tennessee, and a $63 million acquisition loan for a Class-A office park in Arizona.
  • Truist Bank in connection with:
    • $24 million permanent mortgage financing of a major telecommunications company’s office building in Colorado.
    • $20 million permanent mortgage financing to a REIT for an insurance call center in Texas.
    • $15 million acquisition and construction loan for a medical lab facility in Maryland.
    • $20 million senior loan for a limited service hotel in Alexandria, Virginia.
    • $25.6 million senior construction loan for a boutique hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia.
  • Amherst Capital Management on:
    • $66 million loan for a single-family home portfolio in Atlanta, Georgia.
    • $29 million senior mortgage loan to purchase a six-story historic mixed-use building in New York City.
    • $15 million note-on-note financing loan secured by two loans held by a real estate developer.
    • $26 million loan for the purchase of a 518,000-square-foot office building in Wilmington, Delaware.
  • Fannie Mae in its capacity as senior lender in connection with numerous loan transactions, some involving mezzanine loans.
  • HCC Indemnity in its capacity as the insurer of certificates issued by a trust, whose assets consist of a pool of mezzanine notes with a security interest in the underlying notes.
  • An investment bank in the largest pooled bond mortgage program in the nation (approximately $1.8 billion) related to multifamily housing projects financed on behalf of real estate developers and secured by various security and subsidy programs (including FHA, REMIC, and SONYMA mortgage insurance; GNMA securities; and payments through Section 8 and Section 236 programs) and a pledge of New York City’s interests in a pool of mortgages as well as various interests under REMIC trusts.
  • Federal Capital Partners in connection with a broad range of preferred equity, preferred debt, and mezzanine loan facilities relating to multifamily acquisition and development projects, including a $90 million preferred debt investment in a portfolio of multifamily properties on Long Island, NY, a $4 million mezzanine loan secured by all of the ownership interests in a large multifamily property located in North Carolina, and a $9 million preferred investment in a multifamily development project in Destin, FL.
  • MBIA, Inc. in structuring and preparing initial documentation for the securitization of mortgage loans and Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits (REMICs), including various forward delivery structures utilizing specially modeled swaps, and large programs involving the securitization of unrated bonds secured by mortgage loans.

Key Contacts