$20M Financing Closes for 236 Class A Units

"The deal did have its challenges," Robert Frank, director in Dallas for Houston-based LJ Melody & Co., tells GlobeSt.com. But the timing of the fixed-rate interest was a definite coup for Dallas-based Corrigan Investments, owner of the 236-unit Pavilion Townplace at 7700 W. Greenway Blvd. in the Inwood section of Dallas. The loan retired construction financing from a local bank.

Frank put together a 10-year loan, with a 65% loan-to-cost ratio and 30-year amortization, and then sold the package to Freddie Mac, making the close when the Treasury hit 3.62% to deliver the all-in 4.6% rate. One of the biggest challenges was shopping a package for an 89%-leased complex with a $1.30 per sf rental rate and concessions, he explains. "It wasn't a slam dunk to get 65%, which is what the borrower wanted," he says of a transaction put before 10 lenders, including pension funds and life insurance companies.

Frank says Freddie Mac "just wanted the business" due to the garden-style complex's positioning, $31-million value and an occupancy that rose to 96% during the deal-making. The deal's sweet spot, he says, is the concessions are burning off.

The one-, two- and three-bedroom complex has 16 floor plans with units ranging from 748 sf to 2,427 sf, some with two-car garages. The 10.1-acre, infill development sits at the intersection of Lovers Lane and Greenway Boulevard, right at the edge of University Park, home to Southern Methodist University, and adjacent to the upscale Inwood Shopping Center. According to Frank, the Corrigan family acquired the property after World War II and built it out with an apartment complex in the 1950s, which was razed in 2001 to make way for Pavilion Townplace.