Meridian Capital Group arranges $88 million for Dranoff Properties

Philadelphia, PA Meridian Capital Group negotiated an $88 million permanent loan for the refinance of the leasehold interest in The Left Bank, a mixed-use property, on behalf of Dranoff Properties.

The five-year loan was provided by a regional balance sheet lender and features a rate of 3.38%. This transaction was negotiated by Meridian managing director, David Cohen, and senior vice president, Max Beyderman, who are both based in the company’s Iselin, N.J. office. 

The Left Bank, located at 3131 Walnut St. and built in 1929, is a six-story mixed-use property that was converted and gut renovated in 2001. The building is composed of 282 apartments, 98,707 s/f of office space, 22,605 s/f of retail space and 259 parking spaces.

It also has a rooftop deck, landscaped inner courtyard, fitness center and club and meeting rooms. The property spans three acres in the University City neighborhood, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, and features frontage on Walnut St., Chestnut St. and South 32nd St. Tenants of The Left Bank benefit from its location which is a short walk to City Center, the 30th St. Station and the I-76 interchange as well as attractions including the World Cafe Live, Penn Museum and Cira Center. 

“As always, it was a pleasure working with the very professional team at Dranoff Properties; the quality of their assets and reputation speaks for itself. We are pleased to further our long standing relationship by negotiating an aggressively priced loan that features prepayment flexibility,” said Cohen.

“Meridian was able to quickly rate lock the loan at application to protect the sponsor from treasury volatility. Further, by coordinating efficiently with all parties to underwrite the ground lease structure and various income streams, we closed the loan in under 45 days; an impressive accomplishing that can only be attributed to a true team effort,” said Beyderman.

Founded in 1991, Meridian Capital Group is America’s most active debt broker and one of the nation’s leading commercial real estate finance advisory firms. In 2015,Meridian closed over 3,900 loans totaling more than $35 billion in transaction volume with 210 unique lenders, equating to $135 million per business day. Since inception, the company has closed more than $240 billion in financing with the full complement of capital providers, encompassing local, regional and national banks, CMBS lenders, agency lenders, mortgage REITs, life insurance companies, credit unions and private equity funds. Meridian arranges financing for many of the world’s leading real estate investors and developers and the company’s expansive platform has specialized practices for a broad array of property types including office, retail, multifamily, hotel, mixed-use, industrial, healthcare, student housing and self-storage properties.