Cleary Gottlieb represented the Goldman Sachs European Real Estate Banking Group as co-arranger of a $165 million secured syndicated mezzanine credit facility for RosEvroDevelopment (“RED”), a group specializing in the development and management of shopping and entertainment centers in Russia. In its press release announcing the completion of the facility, RED stated that the facility is Russia’s first commercial real estate sector mezzanine finance transaction. Coordinating the new financing with RED’s existing project finance arrangements was one of the challenges. Given current credit market conditions, participants in the Russian real estate market regard the completion of the deal as notable. The deal closed on January 18.