PARK CITY, UTAH — Homestead Development Partners has formed as a venture between Michael Augustine, Jared Miller, Evan Schwartz and Columbus Pacific Properties. The company’s focus is to develop high-caliber student housing communities nationwide and acquire assets through a value-add strategy. Target communities will be focused in tier-two and tier-three markets with a smaller emphasis on tier-one. HELIX Starkville, Homestead’s first development, is currently under construction at Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi. HELIX Starkville will be 258 units comprising 802 beds in one-, two-, and four-bedroom floor plans located across the street from campus. Leasing will begin fall 2015. Two additional Homestead developments are in the planning stages. The first is located at another southern university, while the second will be located in the northeast. Developments and value-add acquisitions will be acquired by Homestead Development Partners and managed by Homestead-U, an affiliated management company based in Columbus, Ohio.
HOUSTON — PCCP has provided a $55.2 million senior loan to a joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Pelican Builders for the development of The Wilshire, a 17-story, 96-unit condominium project in the River Oaks submarket of Houston. Construction is underway with completion of the project anticipated for mid-2017. Adam Allen of ARA Houston arranged the financing. The Wilshire is located at 2049 Westcreek Lane and is adjacent to a 650,000-square-foot mixed-use project called The River Oaks District, which is being developed by OliverMcMillan. The Wilshire is located in the Inner Loop of Houston, adjacent to the Galleria/Uptown submarket and the River Oaks neighborhood. Houston-based Pelican will develop The Wilshire. The Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset manager with more than $193 billion of assets under management.
HUMBLE, TEXAS — Brandon Brown of LMI Capital has arranged $9 million in debt for the refinancing of a garden-style apartment complex in Humble. Brown worked on behalf of the borrower to obtain a fixed-rate loan featuring three years of interest-only payments to refinance the existing debt 12 months before the loan comes to term. With the new, 10-year loan, the borrower significantly reduced his interest expense and recaptured the equity injected during the property’s rehab.
PLANO, TEXAS — Dallas-based real estate developers Roger Gault of Gault Co. and Robert Gunby with RTG Capital LLC, along with Shane Shoulders, have broken ground on Phase II of Willow Bend Commons located at 1855 Dallas Parkway in Plano. The 6,000-square-foot retail building is 70 percent pre-leased. Completion is planned for October of this year. The partners purchased 5.2 acres from Costco for the development, which is on the west side of the tollway, south of Park. Phase I is a 14,000-square-foot retail center that was 100 percent leased before construction finished at the end of 2014. The first tenants opened for business in late February.
CELEBRATION, FLA. — Big Rock Partners has selected Balfour Beatty Construction as the construction manager for a resort-style, $60 million senior living rental community under development in Celebration. The new community will be Celebration’s first to offer independent living, assisted living and memory care services under one roof, with a total of 225 rental residences. Construction is projected to begin in late 2015 for an expected opening in mid-2017. The property will feature tree-lined fountains, gardens, an indoor pool, movie screening room, fitness center and a top-floor solarium for viewing nearby Disney World’s fireworks displays. Balfour Beatty is working closely from the conceptual phase with the project’s architect, Gensler. Life Care Services will operate and market the community upon completion. Sabra Health Care REIT provided Big Rock Partners with a $4.5 million acquisition loan for the land and anticipates providing additional financing for construction, according to Big Rock. Walker & Dunlop is Big Rock’s financial advisor for the project.
KENNESAW, GA. — The RADCO Cos. has acquired Estates at Ridenour, a 255-unit Class A apartment community in Kennesaw, a northern suburb of Atlanta, for $35.3 million. RADCO financed the acquisition with private capital and debt from Freddie Mac. The Atlanta-based multifamily investment firm purchased the asset from a limited liability company based in South Carolina. The apartment units average 1,077 square feet and are situated in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans, as well as two-story townhomes. Community amenities include a resort-style pool with grilling areas, fitness facility, clubroom and a business center with Wi-Fi. Multi Housing Advisors brokered the transaction. RADCO will invest $2.6 million to upgrade Estates at Ridenour. The company’s renovation plan includes exterior improvements, expanding the property’s amenity package and unit upgrades. Additionally, Estates at Ridenour will be rebranded as Ashford Ridenour. The property is located on a 13.1-acre lot off the intersection of Barrett and Cobb parkways, nearly two miles from I-75 and three miles from Kennesaw State University. The property is also two-and-a-half miles from Town Center at Cobb, a nearly 1.3 million-square-foot regional mall, and across the street from Kennesaw Marketplace, a new Whole Foods-anchored mixed-use development under construction.
WICHITA, KAN. — Gershman Mortgage’s multifamily division has provided $36.6 million to finance the rehabilitation of the Exchange Place and Bittings buildings in Wichita to create Exchange Place Apartments. The 230-unit, high-rise complex is located at the corner of Douglas and Market streets. Development will include the rehabilitation of the two existing high-rise buildings and construction of a new parking garage and apartment building where the Lerner and Michigan buildings are currently located.
SIERRA MADRE, CALIF. — Fountain Square Development West and HPI Architecture have completed The Kensington of Sierra Madre, an assisted living and memory care community in Sierra Madre. Occupying 58,000 square feet, The Kensington comprises 75 total units, 33 of which are memory care. The facility also offers a salon and art studio that is open to the community.
SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF. — National Community Renaissance (National CORE) has broken ground on the $200 million redevelopment of Waterman Gardens in San Bernardino. The redevelopment efforts will fill a housing void and serve as an economic catalyst for the neighborhood and city, National CORE notes. Phase I of the project will raze the 1940s-era public housing that currently sits on the Waterman Gardens site. The 252 affordable units will be replaced with 411 new units, including market-rate and senior apartments. An additional 76 new units will be built at Valencia Avenue and 9th Street, which will sit adjacent to the existing Waterman Gardens community. Phase I was awarded nearly $12 million in tax credits from the State of California this past fall. The City of San Bernardino is also investing $2.3 million of federally allocated HOME-Investment Partnership funds into the project. The $25 million remaining balance for first-phase funding was provided by the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and a permanent loan from PNC Real Estate. Amenities at the project will include a community center with community meeting rooms, after-school program facilities and a …
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Mid-America Apartment Communities has acquired the 325-unit SkySong Scottsdale Apartments for $67.5 million. The community is located at 1301 N. Scottsdale Road. The purchase comes on the heels of the SkySong 3 debut, the newest office building within the 42-acre, mixed-use SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center development. The SkySong development team has also announced plans for a new restaurant facility along Scottsdale Road at SkySong Boulevard, while construction of SkySong 4 is expected to begin sometime this year. SkySong Scottsdale Apartments were developed by a joint venture between the ASU Foundation and USAA Real Estate Co.