SPARTANBURG, S.C.—Bridge loans have been hard to come by in recent years, but the promise of multifamily success is bringing some lenders back to the market. Vesta Equity is one of them.

Vesta Equity recently funded an 18-month, $5.2 million bridge loan for the acquisition and renovation of the 369-unit Wildewood Apartments in Spartanburg, SC.  The multifamily property was bank-owned and purchased in an REO sale. Wildewood Apartments is 80% occupied. The loan included a $1 million hold back reserve for renovations.

“We are definitely seeing more bridge loans get done these days,” Adam Kowalski, an investment associate at Vesta Equity, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’ve seen increased competition in our space from both private money and traditional lending sources.  There is such an appetite for quality deals being done by quality sponsors that we’ve seen some startlingly aggressive pricing.”

How startlingly aggressive? In order to put money out on what it feels are justified yields, the firm has been looking at a lot of deals that more traditional financing sources would pass over. Vesta, for example, is considering deals in tertiary markets, as well as note purchases with an uncontentious paths to the properties, and sponsors with a less-than-perfect credit profiles.

Vesta worked with the sponsors to close the loan only 10 days after receiving the request. David Borge of CBRE secured the loan. Kowalski says Wildewood marks the second deal in the past 18 months it has funded in less than 10 days.

“In both cases we were able to rescue the deal for the sponsors after another lender was either not able to fund by the closing deadline or had walked away from the deal last minute,” Kowalski says. This particular deal was attractive, he explains, because of the straightforward business plan and the perceived strength of the overall market.

“The most challenging part of any quick hitting deal is getting all the relevant parties involved with closing transaction up to speed and on the same page in a matter of days,” Kowalski says. “Fortunately, everyone involved in this closing was extremely diligent and more than accommodating in hitting every deadline asked of them.”