WASHINGTON, DC-The First Investor QSCC and Hines have secured $390 million in construction finance for their CityCenterDC project. A J.P. Morgan-led bank syndicate is providing the funding, which will be Shari'ah compliant.

TFI, the investment banking arm of Barwa Bank, helped to structure the transaction. TFI is also co-investing alongside the fund's anchor investor Qatari Diar, the real estate investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority. This investment in CityCenterDC—one of the city's largest projects and reportedly the largest under development in the country right now—is also Qatar's first major real estate investment in the US.

For construction finance it is, of course, a huge sum. Investors can expect to see more such deals, if not in scope and size then certainly in origin. Foreign investors have been targeting the US commercial real estate markets for years, however observers say the pace of this investment is rapidly increasing.

The share of direct offshore investment in total investment volume has grown from less than 6% in 2009 to nearly 10% in 2012, according to Real Capital Analytics, Don Wise, CEO of Metzler Real Estate, points out. "Foreign capital has flowed from traditional sources, such as Canada and Germany, which have been among the most active offshore investors," he tells GlobeSt.com. "As well, several new players have entered the market, most notably from South Korea and China. Other important participants include Israel, Japan and the Middle East."