Walker & Dunlop Structures Financing for 1,032-Unit M-F Portfolio

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Willy Walker

Walker & Dunlop Inc.’s extended commercial lending platform continues to blossom, and Key Real Estate Co. is the latest borrower to benefit. Walker & Dunlop just structured a $72.2 million financing package for the real estate owner and manager’s acquisition of a 1,032-unit apartment portfolio in Texas and Louisiana.

The collection of six multi-family communities includes five Texas properties: Rincon Apartments in McAllen; Reata Apartments in Harlingen; Las Palmas Apartments in Brownsville; Beaumont’s Chelsea Apartments and Farnham Park Apartments, which is located in Port Author. Completing the group is the Louisiana asset, Lakeside Villas in Baton Rouge.

Walker & Dunlop facilitated a multi-faceted deal, one component of which consists of three loans totaling approximately $35.4 million in adjustable-rate bridge financing at 87 percent loan-to-cost with a 24-month term and the option of 12-month extension. The package also includes a $31.4 million fixed-rate conduit loan at 71 percent loan-to-value with four years interest-only and a 30-year amortization. Rounding out the bundle, Walker & Dunlop arranged and co-invested in a nearly $5.4 million mezzanine loan with terms and a structure identical to those of the conduit loan.

Jeff Goodman

“This financing demonstrates the breadth of Walker & Dunlop’s capabilities, which enabled us to customize three distinct financing structures into a seamless execution to meet our client’s needs,” Jeff Goodman, executive vice president of the company’s proprietary capital group,” noted in a prepared statement.

Long known as a leading Fannie Mae DUS, Freddie Mac Program Plus and MAP- and LEAN-approved FHA lender, Walker & Dunlop has been broadening its horizons over the last couple of years. The deals are beginning to flow. Earlier this month, the financing solutions provider orchestrated a $20 million loan for Stave Properties L.L.C.’s refinancing of the premier 188-unit Mountain View Retirement seniors housing community in Tucson, Ariz.

However, Walker & Dunlop is not trading one platform for another. “We will…continue building out our other lending and brokerage operations to be a broader, more diversified company,” Willy Walker, president and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, said during the company’s second quarter earnings call in August. “Just because the GSEs are back, does not mean that we are going to slow down our efforts to continue diversifying and scaling our lending operations.”