The $167.5 million financing is a construction loan and joint venture equity for University Gateway, according to HFF senior managing director Paul Brindley and associate director John Crump. The two worked on behalf of Urban Partners LLC, Real Estate Capital Partners and Blackstone Real Estate Advisors (BREA), an affiliate of the Blackstone Group LP, to secure the fully underwritten construction loan through Wells Fargo's Merchant Banking Group. RCG Longview Equity Fund LP provided the equity.

Brindley calls University Gateway "one of the most highly anticipated projects to be under way in the USC area in years," in part due to the nearly 7,000-bed shortage the university is facing for student housing. The 421 units at University Gateway will provide 1,600 beds, Brindley notes.

Due for completion in the summer of 2010, University Gateway will consist of an eight-story structure of more than 600,000 sf of floor area and a nine-level parking garage devoted to student and retail parking, plus bicycle storage. Neighborhood-serving restaurants and retail outlets with national and regional tenants will fill the ground floor retail space.

Urban Partners LLC is a Downtown Los Angeles-based real estate planning, investment, development and management firm that was founded by Paul Keller, Dan Rosenfeld and the late Ira Yellin in 2000. Urban Partners also operates an affiliate project delivery and construction management firm, Keller CMS, and a northwest regional office in Seattle.

Real Estate Capital Partners LP is a real estate investment adviser that has invested approximately $8 billion in US real estate on behalf of high-net-worth families and European institutions. Blackstone Real Estate Advisors LP is an affiliate of the Blackstone Group LP, and RCG Longview Equity Fund LP is an investment platform created to carry out the real estate investment activities of Ramius LLC and the Feil Organization.