Rhys Hefta advises clients on the purchase, sale, and financing of real estate assets, including office, hospitality, retail, multifamily, industrial/logistics, and senior and student housing properties. Rhys has extensive experience in a wide range of financing structures, including traditional mortgage finance, commercial mortgage-backed securities, senior and subordinate notes, second mortgage, and mezzanine debt. He also offers guidance on construction and permanent financing, as well as distressed debt financing.
Rhys advises commercial real estate owners and institutional lenders on all aspects of loan origination, structuring, acquisitions and sales, securitizations and syndications, and workouts and restructurings. Additionally, he counsels clients in sophisticated joint venture transactions.
Rhys has represented life insurance companies, commercial banks, Wall Street investment banks, government agencies, foreign lending institutions and their domestic branches, and other institutional lenders. He also assists owners in negotiating asset and property management agreements, as well as franchise agreements.
Experience
- A major West Coast port district in the US$120 million acquisition of an office complex.*
- The borrower in connection with the US$40.75 million mortgage financing of a senior housing facility in Rolling Hills Estate, California.*
- The lender in the US$84 million permanent financing of a shopping center in Orlando, Florida.*
- The lender in the US$172.6 million financing of a multifamily development in Mountain View, California.*
- The lender in a US$196.8 million financing of a portfolio of student housing properties in three states.*
- The lender in the US$120 million permanent financing of a shopping center in Oxnard, California.*
- The owner and manager in the US$111 million refinancing of a two-tower, mixed-use, high-rise property in downtown Seattle. Freddie Mac provided the loan. The transaction also included restructuring and streamlining the project’s equity ownership structure.*
- The lender in the US$85 million financing of a portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers in three states.*
- A Puget Sound-based public company in the US$14.3 million acquisition of an office building in Dallas, Texas, from a seller in bankruptcy.*
- A national life insurance company as the lender in a US$79.3 million construction loan for a multifamily project in Englewood, Colorado.*
*Represents experience with previous employer.
Perspectives
Credentials
Education
- J.D., Columbia Law School, 2005, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
- B.A., University of Washington, 2001, cum laude
Admissions
- Washington
Activities
- Fellow, American College of Real Estate Lawyers
- Washington State Bar Association