NBS Financial's Wally Harding Authors Column on RE Business Online

NBS Financial's Wally Harding, a Senior Vice President with more than 40 years of experience in the commercial mortgage banking business, writes about the commercial real estate finance market in a column on RE Business Online. Harding speculates on whether we've reached bottom, and what we can expect in the months to come.

NBS Financial's Wood Secures $1.6M for Woodinville Industrial Building

NBS Financial's Mike Wood has arranged $1.6 million in financing for Underwood Gartland 12, a 38,878 sf warehouse/distribution building in Woodinville, Washington. Earlier this summer, Wood provided $2.6 million in financing for Underwood Gartland 216, a building in the same development.

Symetra Life Insurance Company was the lender. This loan was a refinance of a maturing loan, and had a 62 percent loan-to-value ratio. Underwood Gartland 12 is a fully leased single-tenant building that was built in 1999.

“While the single tenant nature of the deal made some lenders uncomfortable, several lenders quoted the deal because of the existing equity in the property, strength of the borrowers and Class A nature of the improvements,” Wood said. “Symetra ultimately had the most competitive overall loan program.”

NBS Financial was Symetra’s top correspondent nationwide in 2008.

NBS Financial Arranges $15.1M in Refinancing For Wieden + Kennedy Headquarters Building

NBS Financial Services Executive Vice President Ken Griggs and Associate Finance Officer Paddy Ryan have secured $15.1 million in refinancing for the Wieden + Kennedy Headquarters Building in Portland’s Pearl District.

John Hancock Life Insurance Company, out of Boston, is the lender. NBS Financial is John Hancock’s oldest correspondent in the United States. John Hancock’s ability to structure the loan to meet the individual needs of the borrower was key to winning the business, Griggs said.

The strength of the tenant was integral to this transaction, according to Griggs, as lenders are careful to lend on single-tenant deals. Wieden + Kennedy is a creative advertising agency known worldwide for its work with major clients like Coca Cola, Nike and ESPN. It has six offices in addition to the Portland office, including in London and Tokyo.

The quality of the building and its location, at 224 NW 13th Ave. in the Pearl, also had major appeal. The Wieden + Kennedy Headquarters Building was built in the early 1900s to store dry goods and was later used as a cold storage warehouse. Wieden + Kennedy was seeking a new and larger space in the 1990s, and commissioned Gerding Edlen Development and Allied Works Architecture’s Brad Cloepfil for a more than $35 million renovation of the five-story building.

The renovation was finished in 2000, and has garnered awards and national attention for its design and energy efficiency. Wieden + Kennedy occupies the majority of the building’s 160,000 sf of office space. The building also includes about 30,000 sf ofground floor retail space, with tenants like popular restaurant Bluehour, retailer Design Within Reach, and urgent care clinic ZoomCare.

September Market Watch: National Economy and Commercial Real Estate Loans

As the summer comes to a close and the recent stock market rally subsides, borrowers are left wondering what the future will bring for commercial real estate loans. At the end of August there were several treasury issuances that were well received by the market as more than $16 billion of new notes issued were digested easily. In late August, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that “prospects for a return to economic growth in the near term appear good."

The end of summer brought a jump in existing home sales, improvement in consumer sentiment, and increased consumer spending, in part due to the successful cash for clunkers program. Even with the issuance of new treasuries, the 10-year treasury rate fell for the month of August with help from the positive economic news. The 10-year treasury was down almost 50 basis points for the month. A combination of lower treasury rates and contracting lender spreads means attractive interest rates on quality, performing commercial real estate debt.

As the economic news improves, we are seeing lenders becoming more active in the commercial real estate lending market. A few months ago, it seemed that there were very few players in the market, mainly life insurance companies with very conservative loans or banks lending to repeat borrowers in an effort to control deposits. Several life insurance companies and banks that have been inactive over the past year are beginning to come back into the market.

While still underwriting conservative cap rates and trending performance, lenders are becoming more competitive to win quality deals. A typical commercial real estate loan in today’s market is less than a 70% loan to value, greater than a 1.25x debt service coverage ratio and has an interest rate from 6.0% to 7.50% based on term, loan to value, asset type, and location.

August 2009 Treasury Highlights:
August 10-year treasury high: 3.85% on August 9
August 10-year treasury low: 3.39% on August 31

Issues Affecting Commercial Mortgage Rates:
· 10-year treasury declined almost 40 basis points during the month
· $16 billion of new treasury supply released in the last two weeks of August was well received by the market and treasury rates actually moved lower
· Federal Reserve continuing Treasury repurchase program to help stabilize the price as the new issuances continue

August Market Watch: Update on Seattle CRE

Second quarter 2009 market reports show that Seattle’s commercial real estate market is not immune to the struggling economy, but compared to the rest of the country, we are performing quite well. Here’s an update on the apartment, industrial, office and retail property types in the Seattle/Puget Sound region:

Apartment: Seattle's strongest property type has seen an increase in vacancy rates with only a small rent decrease, although many owners have begun to offer leasing concessions. The vacancy rate increased to 6.6% from 4.8% last fall, but strong submarkets like Capitol Hill and U-District remain at well under 5%. The average rental rate in the region was $988, down less than 1% from six months ago. The average rental concession was $733 (on a 12-month lease) with about half of the buildings offering a concession.

Industrial: The strongest performing property type after apartments, overall Seattle area industrial vacancy was 7.0%, with overall average blended rental rates of $0.63 psf/month. The 7.0% vacancy rate represents a 90 basis point increase from the previous quarter. Flex buildings averaged 9.6% vacancy, while warehouse buildings were 6.7% vacant. The $0.63 psf/month rental rate represents a 0.7% increase from the previous quarter. Cap rates have increased about 150 basis points from a year ago. The strongest submarkets included the Southend (Auburn & Kent Valley) and close-in Seattle with vacancy rates under 5%.

Office: Office buildings have seen the most stress in 2009, resulting in an overall vacancy rate of 11.2%, according to CoStar. Class C office space has seen the smallest increase in vacancy rate while class A & B vacancy rates have increased between 150 and 200 basis points. The average rental rate was $27.03 psf/yr, a 3.3% decrease from the first quarter 2009. Cap rates have increased by about 90 basis points, averaging 7.46, although few sales have taken place in the last 12 months.

Retail: Retail vacancy has increased 50 basis points from first quarter to 6.1% and rental rates ended the quarter averaging $20.60 psf/year. Since second quarter 2008, retail vacancy has increased steadily from 4.5% to the current 6.1%. As the economy challenges retailers, we expect to see an increase in vacancy rates through 2010. The average rental rate is down over 4% since 1st quarter and over 9% in the last year. Cap rates have increased almost 150 basis points in the past year. Similar to office properties, transaction volume is significantly lower than the previous four quarters.

*Vacancy and rental rates taken from CoStar and the Dupree & Scott local market reports.

NBS Financial #7 on List of Top Commercial Lenders

NBS Financial Services placed #7 on the Portland Business Journal's list of the Top Commercial Lenders for the Portland metro area, ranked by dollar volume of commercial loans in 2008. NBS Financial's Portland office closed 37 loans worth a total of $242 million during 2008. The company moved up two spots after being ranked #9 on the previous year's list.