$137M Refinances Water Garden

SANTA MONICA, CA-The owners of the 665,000-sf Water Garden I office complex have secured $137 million in refinancing for the landmark project via Newmark Realty Capital, Mark Ritchie of the Los Angeles office of Newmark Realty reports. Ritchie tells GlobeSt.com that the borrower, Water Garden I owner J. P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management, sought the new loan as the previous financing was rolling over and the borrower recognized a good time to obtain a favorable interest rate.

Newmark Realty Capital placed the loan with TIAA-CREF, a Newmark correspondent lender. The Water Garden, considered one of the top institutional properties in Southern California, was built in 1990 and is approximately 90% leased. Ritchie notes that the tenant roster includes a variety of financial services, law, entertainment, advertising and media companies.

The Water Garden complex is one of the landmark buildings in a Westside Los Angeles office market that turned in one of its best quarters in recent memory during the second quarter. While the vacancy rate in Los Angeles County continued its steady decline with a decrease to 11.4% in the second quarter, according to a recent CB Richard Ellis report, the West Los Angeles market posted the most significant annual change, a 25.9% decrease from a vacancy of 12.9% in the second quarter of 2004 to to a vacancy of 9.6% in the second quarter of 2005.