Burbank Empire Center Receives $82 Million in Permanent Financing Arranged by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler.

Business Editors

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2002

Recently completed 613,794-square-foot retail

power center now 99 percent leased

Burbank Empire Center, a recently completed retail power center bounded by Empire Avenue, Victory Place and Victory Boulevard, has received $82 million in permanent financing arranged by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, the nation's leading commercial mortgage banking firm.

Paul Brindley, of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler's Los Angeles office, arranged the fixed-rate, 10-year term financing on behalf of Zelman Development Company through Wachovia Securities, a conduit lender. "This transaction was widely marketed as we sought a capital source that recognized that concerns relating to the product type and size would be mitigated by the quality of the project and its sponsorship, its infill location and the credit tenancy," Brindley said. "It has been unusual in recent months to find many conduit lenders willing to fund large, fixed-rate loans unless they are investment grade, but Wachovia stepped to the plate and delivered a full loan."

Construction on the project began last year, and the center now posts a 99 percent occupancy rate. Tenants include Lowe's, Target, Best Buy, SportsMart, Linens N' Things, Marshalls and Staples. Burbank Empire Center is part of a 103-acre, mixed-use project, master planned by Zelman, that will include 600,000 square feet of office space; a 160,000-square-foot Sears Great Indoors; a 160,000-square-foot Costco and two extended-stay hotels with a total of 350 rooms.

With 19 offices nationwide, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler is one of the country's largest capital intermediaries for commercial real estate. 2001 was a record-breaking year for the firm, with more than $12.2 billion in business volume. Since 1998, the firm's debt, equity/structured finance and investment sales transactions have totaled more than $49.3 billion.