(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare Apartments East, February 15th in Washington, DC)

OXNARD, CA-Kennedy Wilson Multifamily Management Group, in a venture with RECP/Urban Partners and Capri Capital Partners LLC, has arranged $54.2 in refinancing on Serenade, a 400-unit apartment complex here. The borrower is Capri Urban Investors LLC.

The financing has a seven-year term and carries a 2.26% rate over LIBOR. Kennedy Wilson chose Deutsche Bank as the lender because the company offered flexible repayment terms under Fannie Mae’s ARM program, according to Robert Hart, president of Kennedy Wilson. The Fannie Mae program allows the borrower to refinance to a seven- or 10-year fixed-rate loan, with a low prepayment penalty.

The loan structure gives the borrowers “the flexibility to sell the deal unencumbered whenever it chooses,” says Hart. Mitchell Clarfield, director of Deutsche Bank’s Santa Monica office, oversaw the loan origination.

Serenade is a “resort style” community, comprising 14 residential buildings. The complex is part of RiverPark, a 702-acre master planned development that covers 702 acres and includes offices space, public schools and 14 parks. The retail portion of the project is anchored by Whole Foods, Target and REI.

The property is unusual, according to Hart, for providing a full-service community with housing, office space and retail in a semi-rural setting in Ventura County, just east of Los Angeles  County. “RiverPark will be like a city within a city in a decade or so,” he adds.

Ventura County may be attractive to investors because it has “high growth prospects” while local slow-growth laws have put strict limits on new development, according to Hart.