OverviewPressLinks Back to Press page Fashionably Early Publish Date: 05/12/2003 Los Angeles Business Journal By: Danny King MJW Investments Inc. has secured construction financing for the first phase of its Santee Court project, according to the firm's president, Mark Weinstein. MJW which had already begun renovations on the $130 million project in downtown's Fashion District, received $32 million from six financial institutions for Phase I, which will include 165 of the project's 578 condominium units, as well as 40,000 square feet of retail. Completion is scheduled for early next year. "It's the most complicated transaction I've ever done in my life," said Weinstein, who started the Santa Monica company in 1983. "It's going to be a lot easier now that we got the first deal done." He said $2.5 million was raised internally through cash flow and a line of credit to start to gut the building. MJW, which finished renovations on the historic Gerry Building on Los Angeles Street last September and has leased up about 40 percent of the 110,000-square-foot structure, received entitlements last month to build a 422-space garage above an MTA bus lot on Maple Avenue near 7th Street The company agreed to a 70-year lease with the city and is estimating a 12-month build-out on the seven-level structure, Weinstein said.