WASHINGTON, DC-Lending for commercial real estate multifamily in the DC area is very competitive—more so, when the asset is superior and the sponsor is strong. Still, there is a wide enough gap in the lower end of the CRE capital market here that New York City-based opportunistic investor Hudson Realty Capital LLC has been able to exploit. “Everybody talks about how Washington, DC and New York are the places to be, where you should invest,” managing director Spencer Garfield tells GlobeSt.com. “So there is a ton of capital that wants to be in these cities. However, the competition dies off on smaller transaction, lower-quality assets with lower-quality sponsorship or a sponsor that is unknown.” Distressed assets, in short.

Hudson Realty just provided a $4 million bridge loan for two class C multifamily rental properties in Northwest Washington, DC. The borrower, who was in distress due to a maturing loan, used the loan proceeds to pay off the properties’ existing mortgage and to fund necessary reserves. “Had these been solid class B multifamily assets the pricing would have been very fierce,” Garfield says.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum multifamily lending abounds. In recent weeks, just to cite a few examples, MAC Realty Advisors arranged financing for the Warner Apartments here on behalf of a New York-based buyer. The acquisition and construction loan came from a regional bank, which included such favorable terms as a burn-down provision for the recourse and the option to fix the rate long term for either five or seven years. Andrew McAllister, Bruce Levin and Caren Garfield at MAC led the debt placement team for this assignment.

Bethesda, MD-based Beech Street Capital, LLC just announced it has provided a $14 million Fannie Mae conventional loan to refinance Woods Edge Apartments in Rockville, MD. The fixed-rate loan, for which Beech Street secured an early rate lock in just 48 hours, has a 10-year term with full-term interest-only.