Freddie Mac Funds $50M for Pair of Alabama M-F Properties

The Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured a $50.78 million loan through Freddie Mac for the owners of two Alabama multi-family properties with a total of 792 units. HFF director Brian Carlton arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate loan on behalf of the borrower, The Greens at Tuscaloosa, a limited partnership, and Lindsey Management Co. Proceeds were used to retire construction financing for The Links at Tuscaloosa, a 408-unit community, and The Greens at Tuscaloosa, a 384-unit development. The properties, located at 1800 Links Boulevard in Tuscaloosa, Ala., were completed in 2007 and are about 97 percent leased. Despite the ongoing credit crunch and slowing economy, D. Scott Rogerson, CFO for Lindsey Management, told CPN, “the process was fairly easy.” He said this was the second deal Lindsey has done with HFF in recent months. The first was for a loan of about $37 million or $38 million for a Lincoln, Neb., multi-family project, also from Freddie Mac, Rogerson said. He said the two firms are working on securing more financing for another Lindsey project and expects that to close within the next few months. Until the Nebraska deal, which closed in September, Rogerson said Lindsey had not secured loans through Freddie Mac since the late 1990s. In recent years, he said, most of the firm’s deals had been arranged through General Electric or JP Morgan. Rogerson said the Tuscaloosa properties are now paid off. He declined to release the total development costs. The communities share a 10,000-square-foot clubhouse with a fitness center, activity room and business center. Other amenities include a swimming pool, wading pool and tennis court. Residents also have access to the Links at Tuscaloosa golf course, which is owned and managed by a Lindsey-affiliated company. Rents start at $535 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with 544 square feet and go to $795 for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with over 1,000 square feet of space, according to the Lindsey web site. The company also rents fully-equipped executive suites at several sites for extended stays or those with short-term housing needs. Founded in 1985, Fayetteville, Ark.-based Lindsey Management is the largest multi-family property management firm in Arkansas. The company manages about 31,000 units in Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Lindsey also managed several commercial and office centers. The Dallas office of HFF has been busy in recent weeks arranging loans and refinancing for a variety of clients including mixed-use developments, an industrial portfolio and a logistics hub. CPN reported Oct. 22 that HFF’s Dallas office secured a $47 million construction loan for Brick Row, a mixed-use development under construction in Dallas. The Dallas and San Diego offices had teamed up to arrange a $20 million bridge loan for the recapitalization of 1,000 acres of the Dallas Logistics Hub, a 6,000-acre, master-planned development which will include 60 million square feet of distribution, manufacturing, office and retail properties, according to an Oct. 17 CPN report. A week earlier, CPN reported that HFF’s Dallas office had secured $97.5 million in refinancing for a seven-property industrial portfolio comprised of 2.2 million square feet in Florida, New Jersey, Oregon and Texas.