Berkadia Closes $92M Loan for New American Greetings HQ

by Laura Calugar

American Greetings Headquarters, Westlake, Ohio

Cleveland—Berkadia has recently announced the $92 million financing of American Greetings’ new headquarters in Westlake, Ohio. The company’s senior managing director of the Cleveland office, Mark Vogel, secured the loan through Bank of America Merrill Lynch on behalf of the Ohio-based borrower, H&L Property Co. The 10-year loan has a 4.8 percent fixed interest rate, a 65 percent loan-to-value ratio and a 25-year amortization schedule. The deal was completed October 5^th.

The opening of American Greetings’ new headquarters in Westlake, Ohio

American Greeting’s new main office is located on a 13.5-acre lot at 1 American Road in Crocker Park, just twenty miles from downtown Cleveland. The American Greetings Creative Studios, as the new headquarters is called, encompasses 600,000 square feet of office space and 60,000 square feet of first-floor retail. The building houses nearly 1,600 employees that used to work out of a 1.6 million-square-foot space in Brooklyn, Ohio.

“This was a cutting-edge financing only made possible with the efforts of a lot of smart people. It took over six months of hard work,” said Vogel.

Founded in 1906, the company’s major greeting card lines are American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings and Papyrus. Other paper product offerings include party goods, gift-wraps and boxed cards. According to Berkadia, American Greetings generates annual revenue of approximately $1.9 billion.

Images courtesy of Berkadia via Bliss Integrated Communication