Love Funding Secures $22M for NC Project
Located in Charlotte, Preserve at Mountain Island consists of 15 buildings and 240 units. Among other high-end amenities, the community will offer boat storage for residents.
By Jeffrey Steele
Washington, D.C.-based Love Funding, a provider of FHA multifamily, affordable and healthcare financing, has secured $22 million in bridge financing for the construction of Preserve at Mountain Island, a new apartment community in suburban Charlotte, N.C.
Spread across 15 buildings, Preserve at Mountain Island will feature 240 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Mountain Island, a northwest suburb of Charlotte, was named for a small island in adjacent Mountain Island Lake. The island once was the site of a cotton mill, but today serves as a recreation and camping destination. Among other high-end amenities, the community will offer boat storage for residents.
Surmounting hurdles
The project’s primary challenges included successfully combining two separate parcels into one legal parcel, as well as working with the development team, which was comprised of a joint venture between two development companies. “Love Funding overcame these obstacles through close collaboration with the development teams, and [by] engaging a team of third-party professionals to see the transaction through completion,” Laura Saull-Smith, Love Funding senior director, told MHN.
The bridge loan was obtained by Sauli-Smith and Love Funding director Ann Bolen from Love Funding’s parent company, Effingham, Ill.-based Midland States Bank, a $3 billion community banking entity. The financing will assist BRC Mountain Island LLC, the borrower, in proceeding with the project before it obtains a long-term loan through the Section 223(f) program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The term of the loan is five years. But the borrower will be required to make interest payments only during the initial two-year construction period. The loan is the largest commitment Love Funding has closed since the May 2015 launch of the bridge loan platform.
The program was initiated to provide interim funding support for acquisition and refinancing applications on HUD multifamily and healthcare loans.
Subsequently, the platform was expanded to incorporate tax-credit equity bridge loans, as well as construction/mini-perm financing for multifamily and healthcare development.
