Big V Capital receives loans for retail portfolio acquisition in the Carolinas and Georgia

Adam Lipkin, vice president of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital's Miami team, has secured three loans totaling $18.75 million for a New York-based investor’s acquisition of three retail properties in the Southeast.

The financing provided to Big V Capital is an example of how a third-party advisor like Grandbridge can facilitate creative financing solutions and obtain extremely favorable terms for value-add investors.

Led by Lipkin, Granbridge placed the loans with a major regional bank. The five-year loans have floating rates of under 3 percent with two years interest-only, followed by a 25-year amortization schedule.

A vertically integrated real estate investment and property management company, Big V Capital specializes in buying and managing neighborhood and community shopping centers throughout the Southeast. The company acquired the three shopping centers totaling 457,695 square feet for $24 million (or $52 per square foot) from Ziff Properties, Inc. of Charleston, S.C.

The portfolio includes the following properties:

• Village at Myrtle Grove, a 74,370-square-foot community shopping center located in Wilmington, N.C.
• Lancer Center, a 180,194-square-foot community shopping center located in Lancaster, S.C.
• Lanier Plaza, a 203,876-square-foot grocery-anchored community shopping center located in Brunswick, Ga.

“The portfolio represents an intriguing value-add investment opportunity to pick up high-quality, well-located assets with strong cash flow at a low cost basis,” Lipkin said. “There is significant value creation available through further leasing at the centers.”

To facilitate the floating rate financing, Lipkin educated the borrower about the potential cost savings and other benefits of floating rate debt over fixed-rate debt, including the efficient ways to hedge against an increase in LIBOR with interest rate caps at a minimal cost.

“Value-add borrowers can end up breathing a deep sigh of relief knowing they didn’t pay to lock in a fixed-rate loan at a spread of 100 basis points or more,” Lipkin said. “The interest savings can be huge over a 3-to-5 year period.”

Interest rate exposure can be a critical component of the success of a project, according to Lipkin. Interest rate caps can provide multiple advantages over other hedges, like rate swaps, including no prepayment penalties and minimal transaction costs.

About Adam Lipkin

Grandbridge Real Estate Capital's Vice President, Adam Lipkin, has more than a dozen years of real estate finance experience. He joined Grandbridge's Miami team in 2014. Before that, Lipkin was with the Miami office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF), where he helped arrange more than $3 billion in financing as part of the firm's top-producing team in the nation. Earlier in his career, Lipkin worked in acquisitions at LNR Property and in the New York-based Real Estate Advisory practice of Ernst & Young. Lipkin earned a Master of Accounting and Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida.

About Grandbridge Real Estate Capital LLC

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, a subsidiary of Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T), arranges permanent commercial and multifamily real estate loans; services loan portfolios; and provides asset and portfolio management through its broad investor base that includes insurance companies, CMBS investors, pension fund advisors, commercial banks and capital markets investors, as well as its proprietary lending platform, BB&T Real Estate Funding. The company is a Fannie Mae DUS® lender, a Freddie Mac Program Plus® Seller/Servicer, and an approved FHA MAP and LEAN healthcare lender. With a current servicing portfolio of more than $28.8 billion, Grandbridge, an S&P “Strong” rated servicer, services loan portfolios and provides asset and portfolio management nationwide for all capital providers including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, insurance companies, banks and more than 250 securitizations. For more information about Grandbridge, visit Grandbridge.com.