Benefit Street Partners L.L.C. Announces Closing of $120 Million Loan on a Texas Office Portfolio

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Benefit Street Partners L.L.C. (“BSP” or the “Company”) today announced the closing of a $120 million floating-rate senior loan to Silver Star Properties REIT (“Silver Star”), intended to facilitate the liquidation of Silver Star’s legacy real estate portfolio. Silver Star expects to sell all current assets within their portfolio and subsequently acquire self-storage properties and transition to a self-storage REIT.

The 4.2 million square foot portfolio totals 27 properties across multiple asset classes including office (24), retail (2), and industrial (1), located throughout the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio MSAs. BSP’s loan has a two-year term with no extension options. RMWC, a boutique private lender, provided a co-terminus second mortgage loan for $15 million at closing, for a combined loan of $135 million. Raymond James Real Estate Investment Banking acted as exclusive financial advisor to Silver Star.

BSP allocated the loan across its commercial real estate platform, including Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FBRT).

Michael Comparato, Head of Commercial Real Estate for BSP, commented: “The closing of this complicated transaction is a testament to the flexibility and creativity of the BSP CRE group and another example of the team’s ability to provide a beneficial outcome in a difficult commercial real estate capital markets environment. Office is clearly an out of favor asset class, but we believe the cross collateralization of 27 assets with a short duration liquidation business plan mitigates longer term office risk. BSP remains active in the current market environment, strategically adding loans to our real estate portfolio that offer compelling risk-adjusted returns.”

Steven Fischler, Chief Investment Officer and Co-Owner of RMWC, added, "This loan is another example of RMWC’s ability to write special situation subordinate loans across all property types. An inventory loan on office, retail, and industrial assets in three different cities is not something many lenders are capable of handling. We appreciate the opportunity to co-lend with BSP again and look forward to watching Silver Star successfully execute their business plan of selling the properties and becoming a self-storage focused company.”

About Benefit Street Partners

BSP is a leading credit-focused alternative asset manager with approximately $76 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023. The combined BSP-Alcentra platform has over 400 employees, including 170 investment professionals, in multiple locations across the globe. BSP manages assets across a broad range of complementary credit strategies, including private/opportunistic debt, structured credit, high yield, special situations, long-short liquid credit and commercial real estate debt. BSP offers investors deep industry and structuring expertise, demonstrated credit discipline, access to sponsor and non-sponsor deal flow, and a 15+ year track record in the private credit markets. Based in New York, the BSP platform was established in 2008. BSP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton. For further information, please visit www.benefitstreetpartners.com.

About RMWC

RMWC is a SEC Registered Investment Advisor that originates mortgage, mezzanine and preferred equity investments to experienced commercial real estate owners and developers. With a focus on $5-75MM pre-development, development and bridge lending opportunities nationwide, RMWC has closed on over 300 loans since 2008. For more information about RMWC please visit www.rmwc.com or email [e-mail].

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FBRT) is a real estate investment trust that originates, acquires and manages a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate debt secured by properties located in the United States. As of December 31, 2023, FBRT had approximately $6.0 billion of assets. FBRT is externally managed by BSP. For further information, please visit www.fbrtreit.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as “will,” “should,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “foresees,” “forecasts,” “estimates” or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, any statements herein that describe beliefs, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. It is uncertain whether any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what impact they will have on the results of operations and financial condition of FBRT. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. Further, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time, unless required by law.

Our forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risks and important factors contained and identified in FBRT’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and its subsequent filings with the SEC, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date hereof.