Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies Seals Trio of Deals Totaling $220M
By Andrew Coen May 7, 2021 2:45 pm
reprints
Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies (MRECS) kicked off 2021 with a bang, supplying roughly $220 million of financings across three diverse transactions by sector and geography, MRECS officials told Commercial Observer.
MRECS’s flurry of recent activity was highlighted by a $110 million loan for an office-to-life-sciences conversion project in Bedford, Mass., spearheaded by a joint venture between Redgate, Optimum Asset Management and AEW. The debt package funds the acquisition, pre-development and conversion of the existing 288,000-square-foot building located at 100 Crosby Drive.
The Manhattan-based firm also supplied a $57.5 million loan for the acquisition of Blackhall Studios, an 800,000-square-foot asset in Atlanta by Commonwealth Real Estate. The studio’s current tenants include Netflix (NFLX) and Universal, with the facility previously occupied by Disney, Marvel, Warner Brothers and HBO.
“MRECS has continued to finance transitional properties of diverse product types and locations through the pandemic,” Kevin Cullinan, managing director, co-head of credit strategies at MRECS, said in a statement. “In spite of unusual market dynamics, our platform has been successful in identifying and completing what we consider well-sponsored, high-quality financing opportunities in primary and secondary U.S. markets.”
Another major transaction from MRECS involved a $52.2 million loan to finance the acquisition and pre-development of a 283-acre industrial development site in Brandywine, Md., that’s currently zoned for more than 3.2 million square feet. The sponsor is planning a multi-phase development with “build-to-suit and spec opportunities for distribution tenants.”
MRECS has executed roughly $650 million of originations since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. Since its founding in 2014, MRECS has financed more than $13 billion of debt originations, co-originations and acquisitions.
