Insurance Company Lenders

Here is a Bloomberg article from late last week describing how portfolio lending insurance companies are now competing for big commercial loans with Wall Street banks that make loans and then package and sell them as mortgage backed securities.  The article details how Pacific Life and Met Life are expected to beat out big banks for a loan on a 55-story office tower in San Francisco's financial district.  Last week Wells REIT II announced a $325 million loan from Pacific Life for the Market Square office complex in downtown Washington DC that the REIT acquired earlier this year.  In a side note, Wells REIT II has now retired all the short-term acquisition financing (bridge loan and line of credit) it used to acquire the property.