Prudential Johnson Apartment Capital Express will originatemultifamily loans from $5 million and above in Arizona, California,Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. David Durning, seniormanaging director at Prudential Mortgage Capital, comments that thenew partnership "not only expands our financing capabilities toFreddie Mac's Program Plus, but also highlights our commitment tomultifamily financing." He adds, ""Our relationship with Johnsonstretches more than 20 years" and that the new partnership willbuild on that.

Johnson points out that his firm "has been a Freddie Mac ProgramPlus lender for many years, and Prudential has been a robustmultifamily lender for many years." Prudential is also a targetedaffordable Freddie Mac lender, he adds.

"We've been in discussions with Prudential for a long time,contemplating different strategic initiatives that we could take toimprove both of our businesses," Johnson says. Although the newstrategic relationship does not require Johnson Capital to open newoffices, he says that the Irvine-based firm was already staffing upexisting offices and looking to open new locations in markets whereit does not have a presence. The company is privately held and debtfree, he says, so it "has a lot of flexibility" that enables it togrow whenever market conditions warrant.