LEAGUE CITY, TEXAS — Lument, the newly formed organization between Hunt Real Estate Capital, Lancaster Pollard and RED Capital Group, has provided a $40 million Freddie Mac loan for the refinancing of Fairways at South Shore, a 432-unit multifamily asset in League City. The property was built in 2000 and is located between Houston and Galveston. According to Apartments.com, the property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, spa, fitness center and a basketball court. Colin Cross of Lument originated the fixed-rate debt, which was structured with a 30-year amortization schedule and 24 months of interest-only payments, on behalf of the borrower, Houston-based Venterra Realty.
EL PASO, TEXAS — Lument, the newly combined organization of Hunt Real Estate Capital, Lancaster Pollard and RED Capital Group, has provided a $21.5 million Freddie Mac loan for the renovation of Jackie Robinson Memorial Apartments in El Paso. Built in 1975, the property consists of 186 units that are restricted to renters earning 60 percent or less of the area median income. The loan features a fixed interest rate, 18-year term with three years of interest-only payments and a 35-year amortization schedule. The capital improvement program will include a gut renovation of all residential units, from new drywall to new kitchen appliances. In addition, exteriors will be improved with new windows and doors, repaired or replaced roofs and new stair towers. Construction began in October 2020 and is expected to be complete within 24 months.
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Cleveland, Milwaukee & St. Louis Multifamily Forecasts Indicate Case for Caution
In earlier research, we found that investors may find advantageous risk and reward tradeoffs during the pandemic in often overlooked Midwest secondary markets. For the most part, average rent and occupancy metrics in these markets continued to rise throughout the summer, recession notwithstanding. Together, their inviting cap rates, rising NOI and low historic income volatility form a fairly compelling investment predicate. We also found that positive performance attributes were not limited to the region’s most robust economies. Even metropolitan markets that have experienced slow demographic growth — like Cincinnati and Detroit — posted surprisingly good revenue growth. Can the same logic be extended to metropolitan areas experiencing actual demographic decline? A review of recent trends in three “high-yield” markets with negative population growth – Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis – shed some light on the question. View higher resolution version of chart above here. With respect to occupancy, the answer is yes. In fact, property level data published by Yardi suggest that market conditions in each of these metro areas has been constructive since February. Between February and October, average occupancy among stabilized same-store property samples increased by 14 basis points in Cleveland and 10 bps in St. Louis, in …
Investors favor multifamily markets with brisk population growth and meaningful barriers to entry. But can a case be made in turbulent times for slow-growth Midwest cities characterized by weak entry barriers? View higher resolution version of chart above here. Midwest metro areas with relatively healthy demographic growth — Columbus, Indianapolis and Kansas City come to mind — have posted constructive performance trends during the pandemic recession so far, particularly with respect to rent. Among the 10 largest Midwest markets, Columbus recorded the fastest rent growth over the past three years (18.2 percent, according to Yardi Matrix) and nearly the fastest since the beginning of the pandemic (2.9 percent between February and October). Indeed, Columbus, Indianapolis (2.7 percent) and Kansas City (2.3 percent) respectively recorded the third, fourth and sixth fastest rent trends in the region since February, and each readily topped the -1.1 percent U.S. primary and secondary market average. The fastest rent growth in the region, however, was recorded by two metro areas not blessed with brisk population growth — Cincinnati and Detroit. Between February and October all property rents increased 3.0 percent in Cincinnati and 3.4 percent in Detroit, figures exceeded in only a handful of markets nationally. …
MIDDLETOWN AND SMYRNA, DEL. — Lument has provided an $8 million Freddie Mac loan to the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) for the conversion of three public housing developments into Section 8 affordable housing for seniors. The permanent financing will pay off construction and renovation debt for a portfolio of three properties totaling 106 units. The portfolio being renovated comprises Holly Square in Middletown and McLane Gardens and Peach Circle, both in Smyrna. The renovation project consists of substantial interior and exterior upgrades, as well as improved ADA compliance and accessibility for seniors. Holly Square and Peach Circle will be reserved for seniors age 62 and older, with McLane Gardens having general occupancy.
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Lument, a division of ORIX Real Estate Capital, has provided a $9.5 million HUD loan for the refinancing of Morningstar Residential Care Center, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in the Upstate New York city of Oswego. The nonrecourse loan refinances a bridge loan that Lancaster Pollard provided prior to becoming part of Lument and provides fixed-rate, permanent financing. Miles Kingston led the transaction for Lument.
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Secondary Midwest Markets: Investor Refuge or Flavor of the Month?
More than a few column inches in multifamily media this year were dedicated to the implications of coronavirus on the housing preferences of renter households. Many theorize that the pandemic is leading householders to reexamine their attachment to urban life and consider suburban alternatives that offer larger floor plans, better schools, free parking and unit access without an elevator ride. Available data suggest there is something to this notion. Occupancy and rent in core urban neighborhoods in the primary markets have declined, substantially in the highest-cost cities. Suburban performance, by contrast, is strengthening. What is less certain is whether the same phenomenon is working to the benefit of secondary markets as well as big city suburbs. The jury is still out but investors already have stepped up acquisitions in the Sunbelt growth markets to exploit the opportunity — Austin and Phoenix were among the nine most active property markets in the third quarter, and Raleigh and Charlotte were just a step behind – but what of the staid and stable Midwest? Columbus, Indianapolis and Kansas City (the “Midwest Three”) stand out among Midwest cities as the secondary markets most likely to attract gateway city refugees. Each offers renters most of …
The Minneapolis metropolitan area made plenty of headlines in 2020, and much of the news wasn’t good. The social fabric was frayed, and property damage estimated at between $250 million and $500 million ensued. On the surface, the Twin Cities appear unlikely sources of stability and relative safety for multifamily investors, and yet market performance and property value trends have so far proven resilient in the face of adversity. In comparison to many of the primary markets and its regional rival, Chicago, Minneapolis has navigated the effects of the pandemic recession remarkably well and may represent an attractive option for investors who remain committed to the urban mid-rise model, as well as those considering increased exposure to suburban situations. The Minneapolis economy was by no means immune to the effects of public health-related lockdowns. Payroll employment plunged by 270,000 jobs in March and April, representing about 13.3 percent of the February metro total. Although severe, pandemic losses fell below the national average (U.S. payrolls fell 14.6 percent) and were comparable to those recorded in Chicago and Milwaukee. Since April, the Minneapolis labor market has made considerable headway. The unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent in August, materially lower than the …
NEW YORK CITY — ORIX Real Estate Capital, a New York-based business unit of ORIX Corp. USA, has rebranded as Lument. In making this change, Lument is unifying its legacy brands — Hunt Real Estate Capital, Lancaster Pollard and RED Capital Group — under a single banner. ORIX acquired RED in 2010, Lancaster Pollard in 2017 and Hunt in 2019. The company announced plans earlier this year to combine the three real estate finance companies under one banner.
Multifamily investors prefer to concentrate capital in the primary markets. Although prices are steep and cap rates low, the gateway cities offer private equity and institutional buyers the young, affluent tenants, economic diversification, deep trough of performance data and property market liquidity that can’t be found in smaller cities. Gateway cities offer these assets…until they don’t. The pandemic recession has turned the usual way of looking at things upside down. At least for the moment, tenants are fleeing the high costs and perceived dangers of dense urban living for the relative safety and larger floor plans found in suburbs and, in some cases, secondary and tertiary markets. The impact on property performance is significant. In the modern urban mid- and high-rise buildings favored by large portfolio investors, occupancy and rents are down materially, trimming forward-looking net operating income 15 percent or more in many Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco buildings. Determining fair asset value is nearly impossible under the circumstances. Buyers still may be willing to bid at prices generating deeply sub-4 percent initial yields but only against conservatively underwritten NOI levels that discount an extended period of performance weakness. Few owners are willing to realize the resulting …