Gantry, the largest independent commercial mortgage banking firm in the U.S., has secured a $38 million permanent loan to refinance maturing debt for Mesa Grand Retail Center located at 1639 S Stapley Rd in Mesa, a fast-growing East Valley Metro Phoenix suburb. Anchors for the 224,000-square-foot regional power center include Famous Footwear, PetSmart, Burlington Coat Factory, Michaels and Dollar Tree; a roster of sit-down, fast casual and fast-food restaurants like Texas Roadhouse, Starbucks and Chili’s Bar & Grill; and a range of health, wellness and beauty services including a soon-to-open Crunch Fitness health club location.

Gantry’s Tim Storey, Principal, Chad Metzger, Senior Associate, and Andrew Christopherson, Associate, with the firm’s Phoenix production office represented the borrower, a private real estate investor. The five-year, fixed rate loan was secured from an institutional balance sheet lender and features full-term interest only with cash out proceeds. Gantry will act as subservicer for the lender.

According to Gantry’s Tim Storey, “After securing the original loan to acquire the center in 2017, we again consulted with sponsorship to refinance the pending maturity with a loan that could provide some desired cash out proceeds for redeployment. Mesa Grand is a well-established property with a strong roster of key retailers and a history of performance in one of Arizona’s fastest growing cities. It should be noted that Mesa is nearing enough population to overtake Tucson as the state’s second largest city. All these asset specific highlights and a healthy appetite for retail allocations from a broad spectrum of lenders allowed our team to survey a range of permanent debt options that could include cash out proceeds. Ultimately, after reviewing various life company, CMBS and similar executions, we identified a loan from a leading institutional balance sheet lender that reached the desired cash out proceeds while offering full-term interest only to maximize cash flows during the life of the loan and support a continued legacy hold.”