FL Buyer's $43M Loan Cements 398-Unit Buy

HOUSTON-A South Florida buyer obtained a $43.1-million loan to acquire the 398-unit Villas at Bunker Hill from Falcon Southwest in Austin, TX.  With help from the Freddie Mac loan, the buyer paid $56.7 million for the class A, 92.5%-occupied multifamily property.

According to James Kelly, vice president, mortgage banking with Centerline Capital Group, though the sponsor was well-regarded and the property at 9757 Pine Lake Dr. well-positioned, a couple of things stood in the way of a seamless closing.  Kelly, who represented the borrower in the transaction, says the loan had an additional component of $4 million of preferred equity broken down into two classes.  Freddie Mac, he says, doesn’t offer a loan with those terms too often though “it was made much easier because we had a strong, experienced borrower that set up similar programs in the past, and our office has closed on preferred equity deals in the past as well,” Kelly tells GlobeSt.com.