TUSCALOOSA, AL-Bethesda, MD-based Beech Street Capital LLC has closed a $17-million Fannie Mae Dedicated Student Housing loan to refinance the College Station Portfolio, which consists of 264 units in 19 properties here owned by ROAR LLC. The properties were built between 1920 and 1992, are clustered in three groups around the campus, comprising a complex portfolio.

Chad Thomas Hagwood, EVP of loan originations for Beech Street, originated the loan, and Brandon E. Pate managed the transaction. Hagwood noted in a prepared statement, “The College Station Portfolio was an excellent fit for Fannie's Dedicated Student Housing program. ROAR has a proven track record with student properties, and the properties themselves, within walking distance of campus are in very high demand with University of Alabama students.”

The properties typically operate at 99% occupancy. The interest rate on the fixed-rate loan—which has a 10-year term and 9.5 years of yield maintenance with 30 years of amortization, payable on an actual/360 basis—was in the low 4% range.

According to Beech Street, the Tuscaloosa apartment market is dynamic and very active, fueled by the dramatic growth of the University of Alabama over the past 10 years and the redevelopment that has occurred in the wake of the devastating tornados that hit the city in April 2011, including a multimillion-dollar downtown urban-renewal project.

As GlobeSt.com reported in March, Beech Street Capital has expanded its West Coast presence by adding another experienced origination group to its Newport Beach, CA, office. It consists of Doug Taylor, Chuck Christensen, and Allison Eisendrath, all formerly with Walker & Dunlop.