Merrill Lynch Provides $46M Refinance Loan for 28-Story Apartment Building

Jacksonville Fla.–Merrill Lynch Capital is providing a $46 million first mortgage loan to St. Johns Phase I LLC for its recently completed 295-unit, 28-story luxury apartment building, The Strand, located in Jacksonville Fla.St. Johns will use the funds to refinance an existing construction loan by Pacific Life Insurance Company. “Most of the money will go toward paying off the construction loan,” Carey A. Stiss, partner at Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, the Miami law firm that advised Merrill Lynch Capital in the refinancing loan, tells MHN.“This is a new project in a market that has a strong demand for multifamily homes. For Merrill Lynch, it was a good investment decision,” he says. The Strand, located in Southbank, an up-and-coming neighborhood of Jacksonville, opened in April 2007 and has a current occupancy of 43 percent.