Dealmaker: Arbor Funds $21M in Bridge, Acquisition Loans

June 17, 2019

Arbor Realty Trust, Uniondale, N.Y., funded $20.6 million in bridge and acquisition loans for multifamily properties in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Forest Park, Ga.

In Brooklyn, Arbor provided a $15 million bridge refinance loan for 43-unit property 2417 Albemarle Road, which delivered last year. The new loan took out a construction loan to allow a transition into a permanent agency loan once the property stabilizes.

Eugene Yanovskiy, Originating Sales Associate in Arbor’s New York City office, originated the two-year loan, which remains interest-only for its entire term.

Arbor also funded a $10.6 million loan for Wingate Apartments, a 211-unit complex in Forest Park, Ga. Ryan Duff, Vice President in the firm’s New York City office, originated the two-year floating-rate senior loan and a $1.1 million preferred equity component.

“The preferred equity portion of the loan gives Wingate a lower cost fixed-rate scenario that provides advantages over common equity investments,” Duff said.

Built in 1965, Wingate Apartments has newly renovated one-, two- and three-bedroom rental units. Forest Park is 10 miles south of Atlanta.

Arbor also closed a $650 million commercial real estate mortgage securitization in early June, issuing $533 million of investment grade-rated notes. The firm retained $117 million in subordinate interests in the issuing vehicle.

The notes had an initial weighted-average spread of 144 basis points over the one-month LIBOR rate and were secured by a portfolio of real estate-related assets and cash with a face value of $650 million. The real estate-related assets consisted primarily of first mortgage bridge loans.

Arbor said it intends to own the portfolio of real estate-related assets through the vehicle until its maturity and expects to account for the securitization on its balance sheet as a financing. Arbor will use the proceeds of this securitization to repay borrowings under its current credit facilities, pay transaction expenses and to fund future loans and investments.