NKF Spearheads $64M Agency Loan in Virginia Resi Acquisition

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Kushner Companies has picked up a $64 million Freddie Mac (FMCC) loan to buy a pair of multifamily assets in Richmond, Va., Commercial Observer can first report.

The deal helps fund the New Jersey-based landlord’s $98 million acquisition of two developments near Virginia’s capital city: Park at Salisbury, in Midlothian, Va., and Garden Springs Apartments in Chester, Va. Together, the assets total 532 apartments.

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The debt, which was arranged by a team of Newmark (NMRK) Knight Frank‘s Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub, Daniel Fromm and Nick Scribani, entails direct debt originated by NKF and guaranteed by Freddie Mac, according to deal sources.

Representatives for Freddie Mac and NKF declined to comment. A Kushner Companies spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry.

(Disclosure: Joseph Meyer, the chairman of Observer Media, is the husband of Nicole Kushner Meyer, a principal at Kushner.)

Both assets are garden-style apartment developments. The Park at Salisbury stands about 15 miles west of Downtown Richmond, a city of about 230,000, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates. Its landscaped grounds include a pond with a walking trail, a saltwater swimming pool and a bocce court, according to its website. Garden Springs, about a dozen miles south of Richmond, is a gated community with a pool, a fitness center and clubhouse for residents.

The city and its surrounding area, which is home to companies such as CarMax, Genworth Financial and Altria, offers residential rents largely in line with the national level; median monthly housing costs there were $1,060 per month in 2017, the most recent year with available data, according to the American Communities Survey. That compares with $1,012 for the U.S. as a whole.

But demand has outpaced supply in both Midlothian and Chester recently, as per the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Citing CoStar (CSGP) Group data, the newspaper reported last year that rents in both cities had risen between 20 and 30 percent over the previous six years, making them two of the localities with the fastest rent growth in the area.