Construction financing is still not easy to find these days, although it is better than one year ago, so it takes a lot of patience and persistence for the developers, advisors and ultimate lenders to get the job done. One project in Dublin, California (Bay Area), called The Whitford is now set to get off the ground with an $80 million financing package provided by Live Oak Bank and Nuveen Green Capital, with Tremper Capital Group facilitating the transaction.
The borrower, a joint venture between Harbert Senior Housing Fund II and Harbert South Bay Partners, was looking for non-recourse financing to build a 140-unit, Class-A assisted living/memory care community, which limited the lender pool. But Matt Miller and Austin Benacquisto of Tremper Capital Group brought Live Oak Bank and Nuveen Green Capital to provide a $40 million senior loan and a $39.6 million CPACE loan, respectively. Live Oak’s loan had a five-year term and 42 months of interest only. Chad Borst and Holly Walker worked on the loan for Live Oak, and Nuveen Green Capital’s Sean Ribble and Spencer Olson arranged the CPACE financing.
The project is expected to open in 2026 and will be operated by Momentum Senior Living. It follows several other high-quality developments completed by Harbert South Bay in California, including The James, a 350-unit development in Irvine, The Seville, an 87-unit development in San Clemente, The Variel, a 336-unit development in Los Angeles. Patrick McGonigle, Joel Sherman and Kyle Wisdom are working on the development for Harbert South Bay, and Brian Landrum, Trent Johnson and Jordan Redella are working on it for Harbert Management Corporation.
On top of this transaction, Tremper Capital Group also closed (in partnership with Greystone) a $41.5 million Freddie Mac refinance of a Class-A, 148-unit seniors housing community in Palm Desert, California. The community opened in 2018 and is owned by Lytle Enterprises. This 10-year, fixed-rate financing came with an attractive interest rate of 5.56% and a five-year interest-only period. With timing on their side, Lytle was able to index lock the transaction near the year-to-date low in the 10-year treasury. Chuck Lytle, Karen Lytle, Jill Ashton and Rick Aue helped close the transaction for Lytle Enterprises.
