ATLANTA—Star McGinnis Ferry, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Steadfast Apartment REIT, just inked a $73.7 million acquisition loan for Residences on McGinnis Ferry. The multifamily community is in Suwannee, GA.

Berkadia Commercial Mortgage arranged the loan. Berkadia senior vice president Matt Greer worked with the borrower to secure the 10-year, floating-rate financing through the firm's Fannie Mae program. Loan terms include a 1.85% variable rate, five years of interest-only payments, 75% loan-to-value ratio and a 30-year amortization schedule.

“Ongoing employment growth and limited supply is fueling strong demand in the greater Atlanta market,” says Greer. “Our regional Fannie Mae team is based in Atlanta, so we were able to leverage our local expertise to provide the client with the resources it needed to capitalize on these opportunistic market conditions.”

The Residences on McGinnis Ferry is located at 4021 McGinnis Ferry Road. The property offers 696 one-, two- and three-bedroom units and is over 96% occupied. The multifamily asset sits on over 86 acres of land about 32 miles outside of Atlanta.

Jim Grauley, COO and president of Columbia Residential in Atlanta, tells GlobeSt.com we've long been in an environment of historically low interest rates. It's also been a period during which lack of supply has brought the multifamily market back in a big way. What does that mean for future developments like Residences on McGinnis Ferry?

“Rising rates over these extraordinarily low levels will bring financing market back into more historical normal situation,” says Grauley. “This does not mean that projects can't get done, but they will not be able to overly rely upon these low rates. Equity returns will have to be there and more subsidy on affordable side. The gap just adjusts with what can be underwritten for the debt portion.”