Outside the Region: Cushman & Wakefield arranges $265 million construction financing for 727,634 s/f office tower development

Renton, WA According to Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., it served as the exclusive advisor to SECO Development, Inc. in arranging $265 million construction financing for the development of a 727,634 s/f office tower located at 1101 Lake Washington Blvd. North. The financing was provided by Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc). 

A New York based Cushman & Wakefield equity, debt and structured finance team of Dave Karson, Steve Kohn, Gideon Gil, John Alascio, Chris Moyer and Alex Lapidus represented SECO Development, Inc.

“The market for construction and transitional financing has dramatically improved over the past year, with spec office and retail on the radar of more lenders and investors. Special projects like Southport are attracting capital and tenants from around the world.” said Dave Karson, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt & Structured Finance. “In Seattle, we’ve recently been involved in a few billion dollars of financing including construction of virtually all asset classes. Despite the recent run up here, much like New York there’s a long line of capital trying to figure out the best way to get into this market as the boundaries of the city are expanding,”

In connection with the Southport office financing, Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt & Structured Finance group also arranged the $105 million refinancing of the adjacent Hyatt Regency Lake Washington with Starwood Property Trust and Argentic Capital Management and recapitalized the adjacent Bristol apartment complex with Terra Capital Partners and private investors.

The Southport Office Campus will be part of the SECO-developed “Southport on Lake Washington,” a 2.4 million s/f, mixed-use property on the southern shores of Lake Washington. Upon completion, the Southport Office Campus will be a 727,634 s/f complex, consisting of three nine-story towers, over 10,000 s/f of retail space (of 40,000 s/f of select restaurants within Southport), and a six-story on-site parking garage. The three towers will contain 717,355 s/f of class A office space, but provide ample growth opportunity, as the campus is scalable to several million s/f of office space. Additionally, the office campus will include 10,279 s/f of retail space and a parking garage housing over 2120 parking spaces, which will stand adjacent to SECO’s neighboring Hyatt Regency and Convention Center.

The mixed-used property is designed to be a live-work-play, next generation hub for high-tech companies, which perfectly suits the area’s demographics. This master-planned campus offers numerous amenities, such as abundant on-site retail and restaurant spaces and The Hyatt Regency’s 14 meeting rooms, signature bar and restaurant, extravagant spa and 24-hour marketplace. The property is also in close proximity to Renton’s largest retail outlet, The Landing, a two million square foot pedestrian village of commercial, residential and entertainment options.

Located on more than 17 acres on the coast of Lake Washington, the Southport Office Campus is situated in one of the most stunning and accessible areas in the Puget Sound region. Adjacent to the 57-acre Gene Coulon Beach Park, the property offers beautiful panoramic views of Lake Washington, the Seattle skyline, the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier.

“With a majority of the office pipeline preleased and limited office development sites in Seattle and Bellevue, Southport offers corporate tenants a premier lakefront location and best-in-market office buildings to attract talent. SECO and Southport can also offer a tenant millions of square feet of expansion space on adjacent parcels to create an urban campus opportunity,” said Chris Moyer, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt & Structured Finance.