The real estate investment trust JLL Income Property Trust secured a $45 million refinancing on a West Loop apartment tower, the latest move by an investor to refinance a commercial property instead of selling it.
The non-traded REIT landed the loan for 180 North Jefferson Street at a fixed interest rate of 3.89 percent, according to a company release on second-quarter results. State Farm Life Insurance Company is the lender, according to Cook County property records.
Through its LaSalle Investment Management asset management arm, Chicago-based JLL bought the 28-story, 274-unit building in 2016 for $97 million from Chicago-based Draper & Kramer and GE Asset Management, who bought the building in 2007 for $75.3 million, according to a 2016 Crain’s report.
JLL Income Property Trust said it ended the first quarter with $2.6 billion in total assets in a portfolio of 69 core properties in the multifamily, industrial, office and retail sectors. It reported total revenues of $84 million for the first six months of the year, an increase of 5 percent and 40 percent over the same periods in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
Refinancing is growing in popularity among commercial real estate investors in many sectors as they take advantage of rising property values without having to give up an investment property.
Refinancing loans accounted for 61 percent of U.S. loan volume in the first quarter of 2018, up from 45 percent in 2015, according to Real Capital Analytics.
Forest City Realty Trust recently took out a $93 million refinancing on the 1,114-unit Pavilion apartment complex near O’Hare International Airport. And Bayshore Properties secured a $26 million refinancing on the 354-unit Riverwoods Apartments complex in south suburban Lansing.