Dealmaker: Walker & Dunlop Arranges $59M in Construction Financing for Florida Apartments

(The development area, courtesy Walker & Dunlop)

Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., arranged $58.8 million in construction financing for the development of Celebration Pointe Apartments in Gainesville, Fla.

Walker & Dunlop’s Tampa, Fla., Debt and Structured Finance team, led by Jeremy Pino, Livingston Hessam, Carl Passmore and Kyle Miller, arranged the transaction on behalf of Viking Cos.

The team secured a 65% nonrecourse senior loan from a life insurance company, which they coupled with mezzanine financing from a debt and equity fund for a total debt capitalization of 85% loan-to-cost.

“This financing was closed during a time of uncertainty in the overall capital markets and limited options for construction debt,” said Jeremy Pino, Senior Director of Capital Markets.

The new apartment community will have 239 units within the master development of Celebration Pointe.