CBRE Arranges $32.5 Million in Financing for Seattle Lake Union Boutique Office Building

CBRE arranged $32.5 million in financing for 425 Pontius in Seattle, Wash. on behalf of the buyer, Swift Real Estate Partners, following its purchase of the building in March 2022.

Mike Walker and Brad Zampa with CBRE Capital Markets’ Debt & Structured Finance group in San Francisco, alongside Jeff Henderson in the Seattle Office, arranged the four-year, floating-rate loan with one extension option, through the San Francisco office of a West Coast-based bank. Tom Pehl and Charles Safley with CBRE’s Pacific Northwest-based capital markets team advised the seller, a local private partnership, in the sale of the property in March.

Swift Real Estate Partners will use the financing for the acquisition and renovation of the four-story, 75,000 sq. ft. boutique office building in Seattle’s South Lake Union submarket. The property includes four stories of office space, surface parking, and two levels of underground parking. It was originally constructed in 1982 with a lobby renovation in 2018. Swift will leverage its expertise in repositioning and transforming creative office spaces and will renovate the exterior and make cosmetic upgrades to the lobby, elevators, and common areas.

“Longstanding relationships with capital partners are more critical now than they have ever been. Yes, you need to have a very wide reach today but more important is a track record that spans years or decades as the macro turmoil has created a lot of pause in the lending world. Despite economic headwinds, we continue to find and structure attractive capital solutions for well-located real estate and Institutional Sponsors,” said Mike Walker, Executive Vice President of CBRE. “This was a great outcome. We were thrilled to partner with Swift Real Estate again as they add to an already impressive portfolio of well-located office buildings throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

Despite inflation concerns and supply constraints, the Lake Union market has been thriving. Lake Union has the lowest vacancy rate in downtown Seattle, according to CBRE, and has realized the most positive net leasing absorption in all of Seattle over the last year.