Smaller Campus No Barrier to Student Housing Loan

By Ioana Neamt, Associate Editor

After a year of negotiations, a private equity firm from the City of Angels has closed a challenging multifamily transaction in Northwest Minnesota.

Gauntlet Private Investments—formerly Gauntlet Commercial Real Estate Capital secured an $8.5 million loan for a student housing portfolio in Bemidji.

The financing departed in several ways from more typical loans. To begin with it, the portfolio is located near o is located near Bemidji State University, which has about 5,000 students—fewer than what many major student housing usually require. Along the same lines, the population of Bemidji itself only about 15,000; that is also a smaller number than what most major lenders require for tertiary markets.

“No other investment banking firm in the country to my knowledge could have succeeded in getting this transaction done,” Michael Clinton, founder of Gauntlet, said in a statement. “With the closing of this deal, we are embarking on new territory, even for Gauntlet.”

Gauntlet also secured an equity interest in the property, and the borrower plans to add more residential units and even commercial buildings to the portfolio.