Finance
Seven Hills Realty Trust Closes $45.0 Million Bridge Loan to Finance the Acquisition of a Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts
NEWTON, Mass., December 17, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Seven Hills Realty Trust (Nasdaq: SEVN) today announced the closing of a $45.0 million first mortgage floating rate bridge loan to finance the acquisition of Club Quarters Hotel, a 178-room hotel located at 161 Devonshire Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
The loan has a three-year initial term with two one-year extension options, subject to the borrower meeting certain requirements. SEVN’s manager, Tremont Realty Capital, was introduced to the transaction by JLL, which advised Arch & Devonshire LLC, the borrower.
Tom Lorenzini, President and Chief Investment Officer of SEVN, made the following statement:
“The Club Quarters Hotel benefits from being near the Massachusetts State House, Faneuil Hall, Boston Common, the Boston Theatre District and many significant historical sites. The closing of the loan to finance the acquisition of this hotel demonstrates our ability to identify and execute compelling loan investment opportunities. Furthermore, we continue to be active in the market and maintain a strong pipeline of quality loan opportunities to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for our shareholders.”
About Seven Hills Realty Trust
Seven Hills Realty Trust (Nasdaq: SEVN) is a real estate finance company focused on originating and investing in first mortgage loans secured by middle market transitional commercial real estate. SEVN is managed by Tremont Realty Capital, an affiliate of The RMR Group (Nasdaq: RMR), a leading U.S. alternative asset management company with nearly $41 billion in assets under management and more than 35 years of institutional experience in buying, selling, financing and operating commercial real estate. For more information about SEVN, please visit www.sevnreit.com.
WARNING CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. These statements may include words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” “will,” “may” and negatives or derivatives of these or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements about SEVN continuing to be active in the market and maintaining a strong pipeline of quality loan opportunities and SEVN’s investment focus, ability to complete additional loan investments in the future and ability to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for shareholders. Forward-looking statements reflect SEVN’s current expectations, are based on judgments and assumptions, are inherently uncertain and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause SEVN’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from expected future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. Some of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: the ability of SEVN to make additional investments; the success of SEVN’s investments; SEVN’s available liquidity, access to capital and cost of capital; and various other matters. These risks, uncertainties and other factors are not exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with other cautionary statements that are included in SEVN’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. The information contained in SEVN’s filings with the SEC, including under the caption “Risk Factors” in its periodic reports, or incorporated therein, identifies important factors that could cause SEVN’s actual results to differ materially from those stated in or implied by SEVN’s forward-looking statements. SEVN’s filings with the SEC are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. You should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, SEVN does not intend to update or change any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Banks have had a stellar first quarter. The major U.S. banks raked in nearly $50 billion in profits in the first three months of the year, The Guardian reported.
That was largely due to Wall Street bank traders, who profited from a volatile stock exchange, Reuters showed.
But even without the extra bump from stock trading, banks are doing well when it comes to interest, the same Reuters article found. And some banks could stand to benefit even more from this one potential rule change.
Morgan Stanley thinks it could have a major impact on Citi in particular.
Upcoming changes for banks
To understand why Morgan Stanley thinks things are going to change at Citi, you need to understand some recent bank rule changes.
Banks make money by lending out money, which usually comes from depositors. But people need access to their money and the right to withdraw whenever they want.
So, banks keep a percentage of all money deposited to make sure they can cover what the average person needs.
But what happens if there is a major demand for withdrawals, as we saw during the financial crisis of 2008?
That’s where capital requirements come in. After the financial crisis, major banks like Citi were required by law to hold a higher percentage of money in order to avoid major bank failures.
For years, banks had to put aside billions of dollars. Money that couldn’t be lent out or even returned to shareholders.
Now, that’s all about to change.
Capital change requirements for major banks
Banks that are considered globally systemically important banking organizations (G-SIBs) have a higher capital buffer than community banks as they usually engage in banking activity that is far more complicated than your average market loan.
The list depends on the size of the bank and its underlying activity, according to the Federal Reserve.
Current global systemically important banks
A proposal from U.S. federal banking regulators could drastically reduce the amount that these large banks have to hold in reserve.
Changes would result in the largest U.S. banks holding an average 4.8% less. While that might seem like a small percentage number, for banks of this size, it equates to billions of dollars, according to a Federal Reserve memo.
The proposed changes were a long time coming, Robert Sarama, a financial services leader at PwC, told TheStreet.
“It’s a bit of a recognition that perhaps the pendulum swung a little too far in the higher capital requirement following the financial crisis, making it harder for banks to participate in some markets,” he said.
Natasha Luscri and Luke Miller consider themselves among the lucky ones. The couple recently bought their first home in the northwest suburbs of Melbourne.
It wasn’t something they necessarily expected to be able to do, but some good fortune with an investment in silver bullion and making use of government schemes meant “the stars aligned” to get into the market. Luke used the federal government’s super saver scheme to help build a deposit, and the couple then jumped on the 5 per cent deposit scheme, which they say made all the difference.
“We only started looking because of the government deposit scheme. Basically, we didn’t really think it was possible that we could buy something,” Natasha told Yahoo Finance.
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Last month they settled on their two bedroom unit, which the pair were able to purchase in an off-market sale – something that is becoming increasingly common in the market at the moment.
Rather perfectly, they got it for about $20-30,000 below market rate, Natasha estimated, which meant they were under the $600,000 limit to avoid paying stamp duty under Victoria’s suite of support measures for first home buyers.
“They wanted to sell it quickly. They had no other offers. So we got it for less than what it would have gone for if it had been on market,” Natasha said.
“We didn’t have a lot of cash sitting in an account … I think we just got lucky and made some smart investment decisions which helped.”
It’s a far cry from when the couple couldn’t find a home due to the rental crisis when they were previously living in Adelaide and had to turn to sub-standard options.
“We’ve managed to go from living in a caravan because we were living in Adelaide and we couldn’t find a rental with our dogs … So we’ve gone from living in a caravan, being kind of tertiary homeless essentially because we couldn’t get a rental, to now having been able to purchase our first home,” Natasha explained.
Rate rises beginning to bite for new homeowners
Natasha, 34, and Luke, 45, are among more than 300,000 Australians who have used the 5 per cent deposit scheme to get into the housing market with a much smaller than usual deposit, according to data from Housing Australia at the end of March. However that’s dating back to 2020 when the program first launched, before it was rebranded and significantly expanded in October last year to scrap income or placement caps, along with allowing for higher property price caps.
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