DTZ Capital Markets Team Retained for Caribbean Resort Deal
By Damian Ghigliotty November 18, 2014 2:00 pm
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DTZ’s Capital Markets group has been hired by the London-based developer Affinity Resorts to secure $30 million to complete a 5-star resort under construction on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, Mortgage Observer can exclusively report.
The first-lien financing will provide the required capital to supplement pre-sales proceeds to finish the property, Six Senses Residences Freedom Bay, which will contain 109 timeshare villas and 48 residences when completed.
The $100 million development sits on 60-acres of land located at the foot of the Petit Piton mountain, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area’s topography allows for ocean views from every unit of the finished development, said DTZ Managing Director Jeffrey Donnelly, who leads the Capital Markets group out of New York.
“The property is breathtaking, and will stand out sharply even among its 5-star Caribbean competitor properties,” Mr. Donnelly told MO in a written statement. “The resort’s 60-acre site was painstakingly cobbled together through the acquisition of many smaller parcels, and the resulting property was well worth the effort.”
The assignment comes fresh off the heels of TPG Capital’s acquisition of DTZ from the Australian engineering firm UGL in early November. DTZ’s debt and equity brokerage team has also been retained to source $20 million for a luxury hotel development in the Bahamas, Mr. Donnelly said. He declined to discuss the details of that assignment, citing client confidentiality.
“While the debt markets have been slow to regain their appetite for development projects in the Caribbean, we think we have the financial crisis far enough in the rear view mirror that we’ll have interest from bank balance sheet lenders,” said DTZ Vice President Ulrike Ahrens regarding the Affinity Resorts job.
