$70M HUD Loan Moves Mixed-Use TOD Forward in Northern Virginia
Ashburn, Va.--Financing is in place for The Residences at Loudoun Station, a mixed-use project marking the first phase of a 3.8 million square-foot transit-oriented development.
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor
Ashburn, Va.–Financing is now in place for The Residences at Loudoun Station, a mixed-use project marking the first phase of the 3.8 million square-foot Loudoun Station transit-oriented development in Ashburn, Va. Commercial real estate financial services provider Walker & Dunlop L.L.C. supplied project developer Comstock Partners L.L.C. with a $70.2 million loan insured under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 220 program.
Loudoun Station, which will occupy 44 acres in Loudoun County along a planned 23-mile extension of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Silver Line, will ultimately feature 1 million square feet of Class A office space, 1,500 square feet of upscale condominium and apartment units and 320,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. Comstock is spearheading the entire project. The Residences will kick off the behemoth endeavor with three buildings encompassing 357 units and approximately 61,600 square feet of street-level commercial space.
The Walker & Dunlop HUD-insured financing, sourced by commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman, comes in the form of a construction loan and a 40-year amortizing mortgage. “It’s pretty attractive financing,” Walker & Dunlop’s Michael Johnson, vice president, FHA Finance, tells MHN. “The interest rate was established even before the start of construction, and the loan is loan-to-cost, not loan-to-value.” Specifically, the loan was structured with a 90 percent loan-to-cost.
A few factors about The Residences helped grease the wheels when it came to securing the Federal Housing Administration’s approval of the HUD loan transaction. “Comstock is an experienced and competent borrower, and the project is on a TOD site, which is important to HUD,” Johnson says. “People will be riding the Metro instead of driving their cars. And it’s mixed-use.”
Construction of The Residences just got underway and is scheduled to wrap up in July 2012.
