Project Spotlight

The Challenge

School House Trust, the owner of Christiana Meadows, a 648-unit garden-style apartment complex in Bear, Delaware, found itself in a difficult situation. It needed to refinance $26 million of existing debt, consisting of $22.0 million low-floater bonds issued by the Delaware Economic Development Authority, plus a floating rate second mortgage of $4.4 million. The problem was that it was depending on the net cash flow made possible by these bonds to fund an ongoing unit-upgrade program. The trust assumed that its only options were to sacrifice net cash flow and lock in a fixed-rate loan or turn to a new LIBOR-based floating rate mortgage in hopes that rates would remain low. Neither option was very appealing.

The Challenge

Time was getting uncomfortably tight for Mayfair Investors LLC.  The group faced a looming deadline to pay off a maturing loan on Mayfair Chateau Manor Apartments, a Class A apartment complex in an attractive Birmingham, Alabama, suburb.  They needed to refinance and to refinance quickly, so they turned to Beech Street Capital.  “We have worked with the team in Beech Street’s Birmingham office on several deals in the past,” said William Butler, executive vice present of Engel Realty and key principal for the deal.  “They’ve always come through for us.”

The Challenge

All things being equal, Goshen Terrace seemed to be an excellent candidate for refinancing.  Set back from the West Chester Pike on 36 wooded and beautifully landscaped acres, this apartment community in West Chester, Pennsylvania, had a new fitness center, lighted tennis courts, a 75,000 gallon swimming pool, and even a nature trail.  Even better, it was also close to dining, shopping, and nightlife. 

So when Steve Berger, the founder of Berger Rental Communities, was seeking a $32 million dollar loan to refinance the property, he was confident about his options. Russ Drebin, his broker at Meridian Capital Group, suggested that an agency execution would be a good fit for the property and referred Berger to Beech Street Capital. 

Berger was more than happy to work with Beech Street: he had been impressed by the quality of Beech Street’s team and the quality of execution they achieved when refinancing his company’s Toftrees complex in State College, Pennsylvania, just a few months earlier. 

The Challenge

Timing was vital to a first-time agency borrower who needed to pay off a maturing conduit loan for a 200-plus space manufactured home community (MHC) in Chico, California. The owner, interested in trying out agency financing, needed to close the loan within 50 days.

The Challenge

A borrower with a portfolio of 21 mid-rise apartment buildings in New York requested an early rate lock to take advantage of low prevailing interest rates. These properties were scattered in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx and Yonkers.

The Challenge

It happened at the worst possible moment. Three borrowers were seeking a $30 million loan from Fannie Mae to refinance a large apartment complex in Washington, D.C. On the day of rate lock, it emerged that the non-managing partner with controlling voting rights was, unbeknownst to him, on the disqualified borrowers list. Unless this issue was resolved, the transaction could have potentially fallen apart.