Dealmaker: Bellwether Enterprise Closes $137M

Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, Cleveland, closed $136.6 million in refinance and acquisition loans secured by apartment and retail space in southern California and Virginia.

In Burbank, Calif. Bellwether Enterprise structured a $135.5 million loan to refinance Talaria at Burbank, a recently completed mixed-use property with Class A apartments and a Whole Foods grocery store directly across the street from NBC and ABC studios. 

Talaria at Burbank delivered in February and is currently in the lease-up stage. It contains 241 apartments in a four-story building with a Whole Foods on the ground floor.

Tom Kenny, Executive Vice President in Bellwether’s Irvine, Calif., office, arranged the loan with PGIM, Newark, N.J., for borrower Cusumano Real Estate Group, Burbank. The borrower locked in a 10-year fixed-rate non-recourse loan, recouping significant equity at closing. The loan included seven years of interest-only payments.

The firm also closed a $10.1 million loan for Willow View Townhomes, an affordable housing community in Staunton, Va. The financing allowed LEDIC Realty Co., Memphis, Tenn., to purchase and renovate the property.

Located on 11.7 acres at 102 Baylor Street in downtown Staunton, Willow View Townhomes includes 18 two-story townhomes and one-story garden-style residential buildings.

Bellwether Enterprise Senior Vice President Jon Killough arranged the loan. The financing plan included short-term tax-exempt cash-collateralized bonds underwritten by Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits purchased by Boston Capital. The Staunton Redevelopment and Housing Authority issued the bonds and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits were allocated through the Virginia Housing Development Authority.