TODAY’S DEALS: Cohen Financial Obtains Lower Interest for $8.7M Loan

Pensacola, Fla.–Cohen Financial arranged a $8.728 million loan in connection with the acquisition of the Marcus Pointe apartment complex.

The Class A multifamily property is located at 6111 Enterprise Drive in Pensacola, Fla. within two miles of the city’s two largest retail and employment centers. Marcus Pointe is a 309,636 square–foot property that features 248 garden style units. The property is well leased.

Mark Strauss, managing director and Kevin Greenberg, director in Cohen Financial’s Irvine office, secured the 10-year, fixed-rate loan at 55 percent loan-to-value (LTV) with a 30-year amortization schedule and two-years interest only. The sponsor is Passco Companies LLC. The lender is Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital via its Freddie Mac program. This transaction marks the 10th loan Cohen Financial’s Irvine office has secured for Passco and the fifth loan it has structured with Wells Fargo. The financing closed on April 11, 2011.

“This transaction took additional time to close because of its unique structure,” says Strauss. “We secured a capital markets execution (CME) loan, which is Freddie Mac’s securitized product. Due to the borrower’s Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) ownership structure, it took creativity on the part of both Freddie Mac and the borrower’s counsel to conform to the requirements of the CME loan. By securing the CME funding, Passco was able to obtain a significantly reduced interest rate as compared to what they would have received on a Freddie Mac portfolio loan.”

CT Realty, WLCM joint venture acquires cluster of value-added deals for $10M

Costa Mesa, Calif. — CT Realty Investors and WLCM have entered into a joint venture to acquire apartment communities in select coastal submarkets throughout Southern California. The joint venture just acquired three communities in Costa Mesa for approximately $10 million, which include 55 units located within a mile of each other.

The three communities are Beachwood Apartments at 324 Victoria St. (18 units); Orange Elden Apartments at 2151 Orange Ave. (21 units); and College Avenue Apartments at 2290 College Ave. (16 units). CT Realty and WLCM acquired the properties from local private parties and a trustee representing one of the communities. The College Avenue Apartments transaction is scheduled to close by the end of May.

James “Watty” Watson, CEO of CT Realty, states CT entered into the joint venture with WLCM, a partnership including Chris Lee and Ray Wirta, with the goal of aggregating clusters of smaller apartment projects in coastal communities. The partners hope to assemble 300 to 400 apartments in the Costa Mesa submarket this year and have similar plans for other submarkets up and down the coast.

Lee, a principal in the venture, says that the newly acquired Costa Mesa properties will be renovated, repositioned and managed by WLCM. The partnership has successfully acquired and repositioned apartment projects in other markets over the past several years.

“We are a very focused team with a hands-on approach to generating strong cash flow and residual value enhancement through creative and aggressive asset management,” Lee says. “The Costa Mesa submarket has remained very strong through various market cycles. Our goal is to acquire apartments that require capital improvements and have operating inefficiencies.”

The acquisitions were financed by equity provided by CT Cal Fund VI, WLCM and CT investors. The projects also closed with debt financing provided by CapitalSource Bank.

Damien Breaux with Morgan Skenderian Investment Real Estate Group in Newport Beach, Calif., and Steven Brombal with Hendricks & Partners in Newport Beach represented CT Realty and WLCM in the acquisitions. The sellers were represented by Ken Morgan and Rick Applebaum from Morgan Skenderian.