-EJF Capital LLC ("EJF Capital") and joint venture partner North Signal Capital LLC ("North Signal") today announced the successful close of a permanent financing agreement with MetLife Investment Management for RiverPort 4, a warehouse facility that is part of RiverPort Commerce Park ("the Project"), a 510-acre industrial park near Savannah, Georgia. Located less than ten miles from the Port of Savannah, the largest and fastest-growing container terminal in the United States,¹ the Project is situated within a Qualified Opportunity Zone ("QOZ") under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ("TCJA") which offers investors tax benefits to invest into Opportunity Zones with the aim of spurring economic growth in lower income areas.

Completed in December 2022 and situated on 21 acres within RiverPort Commerce Park, RiverPort 4 is a Class A, 208,168-square-foot distribution warehouse facility that is 100 percent leased to two tenants. The Project includes three more state-of-the-art distribution warehouses, RiverPort 5, 6, and 7, totaling another 1.3 million square feet currently under construction. Construction is expected to be complete on two buildings by the third quarter of 2023 and the third building by the first quarter of 2024.

"We are thrilled to complete the refinancing of RiverPort 4," said Asheel Shah, EJF Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Development. "This transaction provides us significant financial flexibility to continue to develop RiverPort Commerce Park, which has quickly become a hub of economic activity."

Upon completion, RiverPort Commerce Park will consist of up to ten buildings totaling approximately 4.5 million square feet of industrial space that are ideally situated near the Port of Savannah and minutes from I-95 and I-16. To date, EJF Capital and North Signal have completed and fully leased four distribution warehouses within RiverPort Commerce Park totaling 1.3 million square feet.

JLL Capital Markets arranged the financing.