Sweetwater Associates LP Lands $23M Loan

NATIONAL CITY, CA-Sweetwater Associates LP has secured a $23-million loan for its Sweetwater Town & Country retail asset located in the city and has used the funds to refinance the property’s debt. “We were refinancing and prepaying an old conduit loan from the late 1990s that had a high interest rate,” Jesse Lowe of Burnham Real Estate Capital Markets Group tells GlobeSt.com about the transaction. Lowe and Burnham colleague Jon Walz arranged the loan for Sweetwater Associates through a Wall Street lender. Lowe says that low interest rates, combined with the city’s tight retail market, were a “major motivation” in the borrower’s decision to refinance.Lowe says the transaction was “not only a refinance, but also a reposition of the property” As he explains, terms of the 10-year, fixed-rate loan allow the borrower to take money out and put it back into the property. Located at 1502-1910 Sweetwater Rd., the retail asset encompasses a total of 164,577 sf. It is a drugstore-anchored center, which is currently 100% occupied. Tenants include Longs Drugs, Bally Total Fitness, Pizza Hut, Circuit City and Staples. According to Lowe, National City and the rest of San Diego County continue to boast an extremely tight retail market, with vacancy levels of 3% and below. “San Diego has become the investment market of choice,” he says.