Cleary Gottlieb represented Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company in the origination of an $850 million loan to affiliates of Gramercy Capital Corp., a public REIT, to finance its purchase of American Financial Realty Trust, another public REIT that owns a portfolio of over 900 bank branch buildings. The deal closed on April 1.
The acquisition was one of the few public REIT acquisitions to occur during the current credit crisis. The loan was originated in two tranches, one tranche secured by mortgages on approximately 250 properties, and the other tranche secured by a multi-tiered structure of pledges in the equity of several hundred property-owning entities.
