Dealmaker: Walker & Dunlop Originates $61M for Affordable Housing

Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., originated $61.1 million for affordable housing properties in Georgia, South Carolina and Illinois.

Walker & Dunlop President Howard Smith said the Federal Housing Finance Agency made affordable housing a key component of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s 2016 scorecard by allowing them to purchase an unlimited volume of affordable loans. “The GSEs, along with HUD, are prioritizing these transactions and introducing new, more flexible financing tools to accommodate borrowers of affordable housing,” he said.

In Atlanta, the firm arranged a $25 million Fannie Mae loan for affordable housing property Alta Coventry Station Apartments. The property includes a Land Use Restrictive Agreement that reserves at least 20 percent of its units for residents earning less than half of the area’s median income.

The Waters at Magnolia Bay in Lincolnville, S. C., received a $22 million new construction loan under HUD’s 221(d)(4) program coupled with short term tax-exempt bonds. The borrower financed the property with 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

Walker & Dunlop also arranged $7.7 million for federally subsidized Glen Oak Towers, a low-income senior housing high rise in Peoria, Ill. Using HUD’s 223(f) tax credit pilot program, the borrower acquired and rehabilitated an outdated Section 8 property without taking on the added costs of a full construction loan.

Edison Terraces in Miami received a $6.4 million acquisition-rehabilitation loan with a 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. The borrower used the rehabilitation period in Freddie Mac’s Unfunded Forward Tax-Exempt Loan Program to transition additional units within the property to meet affordability requirements.