MetLife, State Street Team Up in $2B Co-Lending Deal

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Paul Selian, head of global credit finance, State Street Global Markets

MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset management arm of MetLife Inc., and State Street Corp. have formed a multi-year partnership in which MetLife Investment Management and its affiliates will originate and service for State Street affiliates as much as $2 billion in commercial mortgage loans, MetLife announced. State Street affiliates and MetLife affiliates will co-lend each loan under the agreement.

“We are pleased to partner with MetLife to source new investment opportunities, as well as add commercial real estate mortgages to our broad suite of lending options,” Paul Selian, head of global credit finance for State Street Global Markets, said in a prepared statement.

Robert Merck, senior managing director & global head of real estate and agriculture, MetLife Investment Management

“This is an important step in growing our real estate platform, and we look forward to partnering with State Street to provide a wider range of real estate financing options to our borrowers,” added Robert Merck, senior managing director & global head of real estate and agriculture, MetLife Investment Management.

“This new partnership with State Street extends our broader real estate lending platform further into the market,” Gary Otten, head of Real Estate Debt Strategies, MetLife Investment Management, told Commercial Property Executive. “By focusing on both short- and long-term loans across both fixed- or floating-rate loan products, it complements our strategic focus on lending to top-tier sponsors with top-tier assets.”

“Our CRE lending targets commercial real estate properties in the U.S., and property types include office, industrial, multifamily, retail and hospitality,” a State Street spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

Lend here, buy there …

Just in the last several weeks, MetLife has completed the kinds of transactions that have made it a perennial player in North American CRE.

Gary Otten, head of Real Estate Debt Strategies, MetLife Investment Management

In mid-July, it provided a $450 million 12-year, fixed-rate loan to a joint venture of Macerich and Northwestern Mutual to refinance Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, Calif. The 960,000-square-foot Class A lifestyle center is 98 percent occupied.

Later that month, MetLife paid $97 million to buy a creative office building in Needham, Mass. The 247,500-square-foot building is part of Founders Park, a 41-acre redevelopment by Normandy Real Estate Partners of a former General Dynamics campus.

Images courtesy of MetLife Investment Management