Seattle, Wash. – Gantry, the largest independent commercial mortgage banking firm in the U.S., has secured $12.3 million to refinance a fee-simple ground lease in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. The property is home to The Epicenter Apartments, an architecturally distinctive, six-story building featuring approximately 130 rental units above ground-floor retail services including a PCC Markets grocery store, restaurants, and a coffee bar. The building is noted for its bold structural art facade program, making it a standout in one of the city’s most culturally diverse communities.

Gantry’s Mike Wood, Principal, and Alex Saunders, Associate, with the firm’s Seattle production office secured the loan on behalf of a private investor. The 10-year, fixed rate, permanent loan was placed with one of Gantry’s correspondent life company lenders. The loan refinanced a pending maturity that was previously financed by Wood.

According to Gantry’s Mike Wood, “Ground leases are a unique asset type, where a property owner can establish a cash flow from real estate ownership without having to fund construction or take on long-term asset management responsibilities. This parcel is as secure today as it was two decades ago for urban multifamily uses, and the continued performance of The Epicenter informed our underwriting for the ground lease financing. Our life company correspondent lenders compete for refinancing on these seasoned ground lease loans and can offer extremely attractive financing where extensive performance history exists. In these instances, Gantry’s role is to properly assess the borrower’s ultimate investment goals, and then place our repeat client borrower with the best loan for those goals from a range of options and providers we can readily identify.”