Webster Bank Provides $34M Refi on NJ Veterinary Hospital Project

A New Jersey animal hospital just got some bones for a bigger kennel. 

A joint venture between Crown Acquisitions and Paramount Realty has secured a $34 million loan to refinance a planned veterinary hospital development in Monmouth County, Commercial Observer has learned.

Webster Bank provided the seven-year, fixed-rate loan on the sponsorship’s River Centre, Building 5 in Red Bank, N.J., which will be fully occupied by National Veterinary Associates (NVA). The pet care organization signed a 20-year triple-net lease in the building at 100 Schulz Drive to relocate its Red Bank Veterinary Hospital facility from nearby Tinton Falls into a bigger space encompassing 100,000 square feet. 

Kassin Sabbagh Realty’s Morris Dweck arranged the transaction, which he said closed in less than two months after the term sheet was signed Feb. 29. The loan terms include two years of interest-only payments followed by a 30-year amortization period, according to Dweck. 

Crown and Paramount acquired the six-building, 668,107-square-foot River Centre office campus in 2021 for $84 million from Mack-Cali Realty (now Veris Residential). The refi will help pay off a portion of outstanding debt on River Centre supplied by UBS.

Dweck, executive director of capital markets at Kassin Sabbagh Realty, said a big attraction to the deal was the property having an animal hospital component due to increased demand for veterinary care given the high number of households who own pets. He said NVA has “strong financials” with the 1,400 general practice veterinary hospitals it oversees and the 145 specialty veterinary hospitals operated by the company’s Ethos Veterinary Health arm.

“For a bank to do this type of deal, the tenant has to be strong,” Dweck said.

Officials at Webster Bank, Crown Acquisitions and Paramount Realty did not immediately return requests for comment. 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com