Berkeley Point Provides $19M for FL Property
Bridgewater Place Apartments in Oakland Park includes 312 units, a fitness center, a swimming pool and energy-efficient appliances.
Bethesda, Md.-based Berkeley Point Capital (BPC) closed a $18.6 million refinancing of Bridgewater Place Apartments in Oakland Park, Fla., north of Fort Lauderdale.
Bridgewater Place Apartments features five unique one- and two-bedroom floor plans. The apartments include fully-equipped kitchens with energy-efficient appliances, as well as full-sized washer-dryers in select apartments. Residents benefit from a fitness center, swimming pool and views of a 32-acre lake and nearby golf course.
Fannie Mae programs
The 312-unit, mid-rise affordable housing property in Broward County was constructed 17 years ago with low-income housing tax credits. Fannie Mae furnished the fixed-rate financing using the Affordable, Mod Rehab and Green Rewards programs.
BPC provided a repeat Fannie Mae affordable housing borrower a 12-year term, 10-year IO Fannie Mae fixed rate financing.
Bridgewater Place Apartments had been bound by a LURA to rent to lower-income residents and neared the end of its qualified contract period. BPC timed this refinancing with the end of the QCP and the existing financing’s yield maintenance period to fully recapitalize the property. Rather than converting the property to full market-rate rents at the QCP’s conclusion, the borrower agreed to maintain 15 percent of units for extremely low-income residents. Through this refinancing, the borrower will complete a $10,000-plus per unit renovation via Fannie Mae’s Mod Rehab and Green Reward programs.
The new financing paid off existing debt and delivered more than $3.2 million in proceeds for the borrower to fund the renovation and green upgrades. It also provided the borrower a favorable interest rate and extended interest-only period.
Changing affordability restrictions
“The most challenging part of the transaction was [that] the new LURA would take effect two months after closing, therefore changing the affordability restrictions post-closing,” BPC’s James M. Wogan, who led the transaction, told MHN.
“BPC analyzed the rent differences and worked closely with [the] lender and borrower’s counsel and the housing authority to properly document and approve the new LURA in advance of the loan closing and before it was to take effect.”
