Karlin Real Estate Provides Financing for Acquisition of 1.2 Million-Square-Foot Retail Portfoliio

LOS ANGELES - Nov. 20, 2014 - PRLog -- Karlin Real Estate has provided Austin, TX-based real estate investor World Class Capital Group with the acquisition financing for a 1.2 million-square-foot retail portfolio from Kimco Realty Corporation.

The financing is secured by eight neighborhood and community shopping centers located in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Des Moines and Oklahoma City, and range in size from 98,860 to 260,801 square feet.  Collectively, the assets are 93.4 percent leased and are anchored by a variety of national retailers including Home Depot, Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Kmart and Petsmart.

The speed and certainty of execution of the financing was key to the transaction, according to Karlin Managing Director of Real Estate Lending Larry Grantham.

“With our funding in place, the sponsor was able to remove a number of contingencies relating to the challenge of the transaction and close quickly,” said Grantham.   “World Class Properties was able to secure a quality portfolio of performing assets simply because of a shift in the seller’s business plan.  The sponsor is a repeat borrower with a track record of increasing asset values and we knew we could help them quickly seize the opportunity.”

The portfolio acquisition from Kimco came about as the nation’s largest shopping center REIT continues to divest its non core properties in secondary markets and concentrate on high quality assets in key markets on the West Coast, Baltimore-Washington, DC corridor, and the Florida “Gold Coast.”

About Karlin Real Estate

Karlin Real Estate (http://www.karlinre.com) is a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm that focuses on acquiring and financing value added commercial properties, bundled assets as well as performing and non-performing debt secured by real estate throughout the United States and Western Europe. Through its dedicated debt platform, Karlin has also provided more than $600 million in senior and mezzanine financing for the acquisition and refinancing of opportunistic and transitional real estate assets throughout the United States. Karlin Real Estate is an affiliate of Karlin Asset Management, a private investment firm with more than $1.5 billion in unleveraged capital under management.