WASHINGTON, DC-A venture between Rockpoint Group, Jefferson Apartment Group and Perseus Realty secured $53 million in construction financing for 14W, a mixed-use project in the District that will be located at 14th and W streets, NW. HFF’s Bill Asbill, Bob Donhauser and Cary Abod placed the loan with Wells Fargo Bank.
14W is located on a former YMCA site. When it delivers in October 2012, it will include 231 luxury residential units and 12,200 square feet of retail space. The YMCA, which will be rebuilt, contributed the land to the development venture and will retain a 44,000-square-foot condo in the mixed-use building.
The financing, of course, is yet another indication of the growing confidence lenders have in the DC area construction market. It also highlights, at least anecdotally, a growing role that Wells Fargo has been taking in local deals. To cite another recent example, the Donaldson Group of Rockville, MD and its equity partner, New York-based Angelo, Gordon & Co., closed on the acquisition and renovation financing for a 459-unit apartment community in Temple Hills, MD. Wells Fargo provided that loan as well. The financing was brokered by Maury Zanoff and Matthew Williams at CBRE Capital Markets, representing the partnership in the loan transaction, and Katherine Reid and Andrew Lucas of Wells Fargo. TDG and AG acquired Heather Hill Apartment Homes for $38 million in December 2010 in an all-cash transaction.
Such deals are not surprising considering Wells Fargo is third behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in transaction volume for multifamily lender, Ari Firoozabadi, director of Marcus & Millichap’s National Multi-Housing Group, tells GlobeSt.com.
Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital has been moderately active in the DC area, he adds. “They tend to finance value plays or in the previous cycle new development.” That said, overall, national banks only accounted for approximately 8% of total multifamily originations in 2010, one of which is Wells Fargo. “The primary lenders continue to be government agencies and regional banks,” Firoozabadi concludes, citing Real Capital Analytics statistics. These players originated 70% of all multifamily loans in 2010.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
