San Francisco, Calif. – Gantry, the largest independent commercial mortgage banking firm in the U.S., has secured a $9.5 million permanent loan to refinance the Plaza North Shopping Center located at 201-313 North McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma, Calif. The 101,000-square-foot center is currently anchored by grocer Lola’s Market, CVS Pharmacy, Starbucks, GNC, Club Pilates and a wide range of fast food, dining, beauty, retailers, and professional services.

Gantry’s Robert Slatt, Principal, Andrew Ferguson, Associate, and Maria Zwick, Senior Closer, with the firm’s San Francisco production office secured the loan on behalf of the borrower, a private limited partnership. The 7-year, fixed-rate, permanent loan was provided by one of Gantry’s correspondent life company lenders, replacing a maturing loan from 2013.

According to Gantry’s Robert Slatt, “Neighborhood shopping centers and essential retail remain strong performers post COVID, with evolving long-term fundamentals pointing to sustaining that trend. Our insurance company correspondents have remained an accessible and consistent source for loans in the retail space for these reasons and rely on us to identify qualifying sponsors and properties that can meet their requisite underwriting criteria. For Plaza North, Gantry was able to articulate the sponsor’s long history of performance at the asset, debt service coverage at time-tested cash flows, future upside from new leasing, and a strategic location serving a regional suburban and rural consumer population to shop this loan with the full range of our correspondents, resulting in an attractive fixed rate loan optimized to our client’s plans for a continued legacy hold.”