WASHINGTON, DC-Phase I of Highland Park, a 229-unit apartment building located on top of the Columbia Heights metro station, has secured a fixed-rate permanent $66 million loan from Key Bank Real Estate Capital’s Fannie Mae DUS platform. As usual, Fannie Mae bid aggressively for the business, Cassidy Turley’s capital markets vice president David Webb tells GlobeSt.com. “The interest rate came in between 3.6% and 3.7%,” he says. “None of competing banks could match that.”

Donatelli Development, Gragg & Associates and a client of Invesco Real Estate are the project’s developers. Located at 14th and Irving Streets, NW, it consists of Phase I, the 229-unit building, and another 144-unit building, Highland Park Phase II. Construction on that began earlier this year with a scheduled delivery date of early 2013. Webb and Jamie Butler of Cassidy Turley acted as advisor to Donatelli Development on the financing transaction.

The $66-million permanent loan will be this phase of the project’s last trip to the capital markets for some time. “This is a high quality asset so securing financing for it has been easy,” Webb says. “Last year, the owners closed on equity and mezzanine financing for the project and several months ago we closed on a construction loan. This loan is refinancing the original construction loan.”