Adam Finkel
Adam Finkel

Phoenix based structured finance firm, Tower Capital, recently arranged a $13,000,000 acquisition loan on behalf of Salt Lake City-based private investment group to acquire the historic Clift Building located in downtown Salt Lake City. The 105,000 square foot multi-tenant office building consists of nine floors and features a 5,500 square foot theater that is currently lease to the “Off Broadway” comedy group. The property sold for $10,750,000 or roughly $102 per square foot and was fully leased to over 60 small tenants at the time of sale. Jim Balderson, managing director of Jones Lang Lasalle’s (JLL) Salt Lake City office negotiated the sale. JLL will also be handling the leasing.

The new ownership plans to maintain the historic exterior façade of the property while spending approximately $5.3 million to modernize the mechanical systems and renovate the interior floor plates to build out creative office space that is conducive to attracting creative/technology tenants.

The $13 million loan secured by Tower Capital through an LA-based debt fund represented 70% of total project cost and incorporated working capital, TI’s, leasing commissions, and capital improvements. Commenting on the transaction, Adam Finkel, principal of Tower Capital said “This was a very complex transaction that involved both public and private financing, subordination issues, and variety of other complexities associated with a historic property of this vintage.”

Tower Capital is a structured finance firm specializing in debt and equity placement on behalf of commercial real estate investors throughout the country. They offer borrowers short term bridge solutions through their in-house private lending platform, as well as conventional financing through their commercial mortgage brokerage division.