Lee Johnson Auto Family Property in Kirkland Home to Multiple Automotive Brand Dealerships and Service Facilities; Gantry’s Insurance Correspondents Loan Resource for Special Use Properties
Seattle, Wash. (October 5, 2023) – Gantry, the largest independent commercial mortgage banking firm in the U.S., has secured a $30 million permanent loan to refinance the Lee Johnson Family’s landmark automotive dealership property, a 100,000-square-foot commercial facility and showroom located at 11845 NE 85th Street in Kirkland, a Seattle MSA suburb.
Gantry’s Demetri Koston, Principal of the firm’s Spokane production office worked with Mike Taylor, Principal, based out of the Seattle production office to secure the financing on behalf of the borrower, a private partnership. The nine-year, low leverage loan features an attractive fixed-rate and 30-year amortization.
According to Gantry’s Demetri Koston, “It’s always an honor to work on a financing assignment for a business legacy like Lee Johnson Auto Family. This is a generational operation with nearly 100 years of successful business history in the Kirkland and Seattle Region. While specialized facilities like an auto dealership or marina can sometimes be difficult for capital sources to underwrite, Gantry’s close relationship with our insurance company correspondents allows us to articulate a clear operational picture with an appropriate land and facility evaluation to showcase sponsor proformas in terms that make sense to a wide range of our insurance lenders.”
“Demetri and the Gantry team have been great to work with,” said Robert Jay, CFO of Lee Johnson Auto Family. “I have never used a lending broker before, and it was refreshing to have a team working hard for me to find financing sources in a tight lending market. The Gantry team introduced our company to lending sources that we would not typically have worked with, and our financing needs were taken care of very expeditiously and at good interest rates. I also appreciated how the Gantry staff coordinated all the closing details and are now helping with ongoing loan administration.”
About Gantry
Gantry, a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, is a full-service mortgage banking firm with an extensive lineup of correspondent lenders utilizing Gantry’s production, closing, and servicing capabilities. Established in 1991, Gantry is currently staffed by nearly 100 professionals in regional offices throughout the western United States and in New York with over 45 production teams. The company’s national servicing platform of approximately $18 billion represents more than 2,100 loans located in 43 states. Gantry is rated as a Primary Servicer by Standard & Poor’s and is one of a select few non-banking/non-insurance-chartered companies with this designation.
