TAMPA, FL—Insurance companies continue to compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are both getting more aggressive on multifamily loan deals. Fannie and Freddie both cut their interest rates at the beginning of 2014 in a move to go toe-to-toe with top sponsors.

But life insurance companies are still in the game. The latest example is Elan Gateway. The newly-completed, 240-unit, luxury multifamily community in Saint Petersburg, FL won a $25.2 million nod. HFF represented the owners, Thackeray Partners and Greystar, to secure loan.

A life insurance company, whose name was withheld, offered a seven-year, 3.94%, fixed-rate loan. Ownership is using loan proceeds as a forward take-out for the construction financing. The loan was rate locked about nine months before stabilization.

“The sponsorship was able to think ahead strategically and go to market in parallel with starting the leasing process,” HFF managing director Kevin MacKenzie tells GlobeSt.com. He worked with HFF senior real estate analyst Andrew Tighe on the deal.

“Following an aggressive marketing effort, the result was a loan that fit within the business plan providing for debt and equity take-out, as well as maintaining enough flexibility to exit in the desired time-frame,” MacKenzie says. Elan Gateway was completed in 2013 and offers one- and two-bedroom units across 10 residential buildings.  

Elan Gateway is located at 11800 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North across the bay from the Tampa International Airport and close to the Tampa Bay waterfront, Saint Pete Beach and Interstate 275. The property is 94% leased.