CBRE Arranges $212M Financing for Clarion DC-Area Office Campus

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor 

CBRE Capital Markets, of Washington, D.C., has arranged $212 million in financing for Metro Park, a 37-acre, seven-building, 1.15-million-square-foot Class A office campus in Alexandria, Va., CBRE announced Monday. The park’s owner is Clarion Partners, of New York.

CBRE worked exclusively on behalf of Clarion to arrange the seven-year loan through SunTrust Bank and HSBC Credit Corp. (USA) with a 50 percent LTV and a rate of approximately 3 percent.

“Despite the headlines about the fiscal cliff and sequestration, we received interest from both banks and life companies,” said Joe Donato, the CBRE executive VP who led the team in arranging the financing. “The quality of this portfolio combined with a low leverage request from a top-tier borrower resulted in favorable financing terms.”

Sited in the Springfield submarket near Fort Belvoir and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency headquarters, Metro Park is leased to the General Services Administration and some of the nation’s largest federal government contractors. The campus is described as park-like, with a water feature, extensive green spaces, a grand gazebo, park benches, walking paths and wildlife sculptures.

Metro Park is served by the Franconia–Springfield station, the southwestern terminus of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Blue Line. The station also provides Virginia Railway Express, Metrobus, and local and regional bus service.

The park is managed by Transwestern, and the leasing agent is Avison Young.

“2012 has been a great year for both lenders and borrowers,” Donato told Commercial Property Executive. “Many life companies increased their allocations to mortgages and most exceeded those targets, banks continue to strengthen their balance sheets and have been active lending on both transitional and stable assets, and CMBS volume has exceeded nearly everyone’s expectations.”

“Given the Fed’s current policy,” he added, “we expect 2013 will be another exceptional year for borrowers, with long-term rates below 4 percent and plenty of lending options from which to choose.”