Mesa West Capital is bullish about Texas after doubling its loan originations in the Lone Star State last year.
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The bridge lender originated $350M in acquisition loans collateralized by Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin-area commercial properties in 2019.
These Texas financings represent 10% of Mesa West Capital's $4B in total loan commitments issued last year.
The California-based company arranged five financings in North and Central Texas, including the origination of acquisition loans secured by the 354K SF International Plaza III office tower acquired by Crescent in Dallas and debt tied to the 300K SF Legacy Place office property in Plano purchased by Equus Capital Partners.
The company also financed GlenStar Properties' purchase of the 451K SF Premier Place in Dallas.
The remaining deals in the 2019 Texas portfolio, which range from $45M to $122M, occurred in Austin and are linked to multifamily assets.
Heading deeper into 2020, DFW and Texas at large remain attractive landing spots for the value-add-focused lender.
“As opposed to other markets where you are hungry for yield, or speculation kind of drives value increases, I think what we’ve seen in Texas is that the fundamentals are propping up values," Mesa West Vice President Brian Hirsh said.
Hirsh said the state has strong fundamentals such as rising property values, solid job growth and the ongoing migration of diverse companies from other states.
If these fundamentals remain on course, the firm expects to maintain a robust lending pace in DFW and Texas this year.
“We are particular about the type of deals we target,” Hirsh said. “That being said if the same number of opportunities present [themselves] then we are willing to lend and certainly we expect to meet or exceed our origination volume from last year.”
Mesa West first entered the Texas market with $4.4M in debt to finance the purchase of an Austin industrial building in 2007.
Since then, the company has issued about $1B in short-term, first mortgage debt to cover recapitalization and asset purchase efforts in the state, Hirsh said in a press statement.
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