News
$342M FOR CENTRAL CAMPUS
August 10, 2011
 |
| You think they could have squeezed in a few more corner offices at this Silicon Valley low-rise? Mesa West Capital recently provided Rockpoint Group and Presidio Investments (no relation to Mark's firm) with a $32.4M loan for the acquisition of Central Campus, a vacant, 310k-plus office and R&D campus in Santa Clara. Yesterday we spoke with Mesa West principal Ronnie Gul, who originated the loan. He tells us the seller, Applied Materials, had occupied the site developed for the company by Spieker Properties since the early 1990s. Mesa West has been very active in financing these value-add deals. The property might be vacant, but it’s low-leveraged with a strong sponsorship. The leverage on the loan is 55% and the company only advances dollars as leases are signed. “We think it’s appropriately structured for the risk profile.” |
 |
| Central Campus represents one of the few remaining blocks of space larger than 200k SF in Silicon Valley, where he says a significant number of tenants are looking for that size space. According to Ronnie, it’s a high-quality asset in a market that’s seeing strong absorption these days. For example, the company holds a $130M note on three of the six office buildings at Moffett Towers in Sunnyvale. Since Mesa West acquired the loan in Q4, landlord Jay Paul Co has signed 1M SF of leases to large corporate tenants like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola. Mesa West is active across the country, but the Valley and Bay Area are “definitely a focus.” Time’s a luxury, but when he has some downtime, Ronnie spends it with his kids or playing basketball. |
