Colliers Scouting for $58M in Financing for North Carolina Multifamily Project
By Danielle Balbi March 25, 2016 1:15 pm
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Colliers International’s structured finance team was exclusively retained to secure $58 million in debt and equity for Boston-based Whipple Construction and its development partners’ three-phase, 476-unit multifamily project in Raleigh, N.C., Commercial Observer has learned.
The development, “Foxwood,” is located at 6701 and 6905 Fox Road, “with easy access to the highways to get into central Raleigh, and good access to retail and amenities, [such as] restaurants, shopping and high-end retail,” Geoffrey Evancic, the president of Whipple, told CO. He added that the community is in need of more multifamily product and that the city of Raleigh is seeing strong economics overall.
“This is a great location that is in much need of more quality product,” Jeffrey Donnelly, an executive director at Colliers who is working on the financing, said in prepared remarks. “We have a wonderful strategic location in the notch formed by I-540 and Highway 401. This is a super, 46.5-acre infill site with all the amenities—schools, shopping and convenience to major highways/bypasses.”
Mr. Evancic said that the firm expects to break ground on the development site by the third quarter of this year, with the first phase completed during the second quarter of 2017. The project’s total construction timeline is 24 months. The development will be amenity-heavy, he added, with a pool, outdoor patios and decks with fireplaces, a business center and high-end interior finishes.
“We have had a great reception of this offering thus far, and are confident that we will have a successful debt and equity placement in the coming weeks,” Mr. Donnelly said. “Ideally, that would involve an equity co-investor who sees the appeal of executing several multifamily projects with a single developer as part of a programmatic partnership. We would love a single solution for the equity partner for all four of the pending projects in the Carolinas.”
Whipple Construction, which was founded nearly 100 years ago, focuses on deals in Boston, New York and the Carolinas. The firm currently has four multifamily projects under development in North Carolina and South Carolina.
“Our clients could build this project in their sleep,” Ulrike Ahrens, a director on Collier’s structured finance team, said in prepared remarks. “Whipple has executed a wide array of real estate projects throughout the country, including office, retail, industrial, hotels, government/municipal buildings, sports centers and even complex restoration of concert halls, but they have particular expertise in residential development—both single-family and multifamily. Prior to Mr. Evancic’s acquisition of 100-year-old Whipple Construction five years ago, he and his partners had significant tenures with the major single-family developers such as Pulte [Group] and Hovnanian [Enterprises], but also at multifamily developer JPI [Apartment Construction].”
