New York City-based ING Clarion Partners, owners of the nine-building Greenwich Office Park, recently refinanced six of the buildings at the park for $45 million.
Homeowners aren’t the only ones taking advantage of historically low interest rates to save themselves money. New York City-based ING Clarion Partners, owners of the nine-building Greenwich Office Park, recently decided to refinance six of the buildings, saving the company millions of dollars a year.
“We’re saving a lot of money,” said Tim Guy, senior vice president of ING Clarion Partners, a real estate investment and management company.
The company’s existing financing was coming to the end of its loan terms, so the company decided to refinance for $45 million.
“We refinanced to take advantage of low, historical rates,” Guy said.
Guy wouldn’t say how much money the company is saving by refinancing, but conceded that it will be millions of dollars annually.
The office park, which totals 420,000 square feet, is located on Route 1 and is near Interstate 95 in Greenwich. The nine buildings are in a campus environment, Guy said. There are two ponds with fountains and “all kinds of landscaping,” he said. The park was built between 1968 and the mid-1970s. ING Clarion Partners bought the property in 1997 because it was a good investment, Guy said.
“It’s a well-located, high-quality, core office investment,” he said.
L.J. Melody & Co., the Houston-based real estate banking division of CB Richard Ellis, arranged the $45 million financing. The term of the financing is for five years, according to a prepared statement by L.J. Melody & Co. The interest rate is priced to float over the British Bankers’ Association London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, and payable interest-only. The six buildings refinanced range from about 25,000 square feet to 106,000 square feet and total about 309,000 square feet.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. provided the funding for the Property Connecticut OBJLW One Corp., which is wholly owned by a domestic public pension fund and advised by ING Clarion Partners, according to L.J. Melody & Co., whose Houston office, in conjunction with its Fairfield office, secured funding for the transaction.
ING Clarion Partners refinanced six of the nine buildings so they could do something different with the other three if they so decide, Guy said. He did not say what they might do with the other buildings.
The office park is about 95 percent leased. The office market in Fairfield County is among the best imaginable, Guy said.
“It’s in one of the healthiest office markets in the United States,” he said.
Some of the Greenwich Office Park’s largest tenants are ARC Marketing, Bedford Fair, a catalog clothing company, and United Rentals, an equipment rental company. But financial services companies and hedge fund management companies rent most of the park, Guy said.
