Ari Rastegar Seals $32M Construction Loan for Launch of Texas Master Planned Community
Trez Capital supplies financing for the first phase of the developer's large-scale mixed-use project near Austin.
By Andrew Coen July 30, 2024 8:00 am
reprints
Ari Rastegar’s Rastegar Property Company has landed $31.7 million of construction financing to build the first phase of a 318-acre master-planned community between Austin and San Antonio, Commercial Observer can first report.
Trez Capital provided the loan on Rastegar’s planned Infinity Square project in Kyle, Texas, that will consist of 1,000 single-family homes, 1,400 apartments, 185,000 square feet of commercial space and an elementary school. The first phase will include 329 single-family lots.
“In a challenging landscape, we are excited to have closed this funding deal, which will provide a major capital injection allowing us to activate our ambitious plans to construct the first phase of Infinity Square,” Rastegar, founder and CEO of the namesake company, said in a statement. “Since acquiring the site in two parts in 2019 and 2021, Rastegar has been working hard to create the infrastructure of the project, and we’re thrilled to partner with Trez Capital to help fund this next milestone.
The start of the master-planned community in Kyle follows a complex zoning approval process that involved working with city officials to build a school and set aside green space on what had formerly been farmland. Rastegar, who founded his company in 2015, has also navigated market challenges during the planning stages for the development over the last few years amid rising interest rates from previous near-zero borrowing conditions .
Located at 700-800 Bunton Lane 20 minutes south of Downtown Austin and 45 minutes northeast of San Antonio, Infinity Square marks the latest large-scale commercial real estate project that Rastegar has tackled in the Sun Belt since forming his company in 2015. The Austin-based firm currently has nine projects in Texas and Arizona totaling $1.5 billion in development costs, including a 600,000-square-foot industrial park near Tesla’s gigafactory in Austin.
John Hutchinson, co-CEO and global head of origination at Trez Capital, told CO he is bullish on the rental housing fundamentals in the Austin market with its wide-scale business growth that includes Samsung’s expansion of a chip production facility. Elon Musk also announced this month plans to move his X and SpaceX headquarters to Austin from California.
“We look to do loans in cities that have high population growth and high job growth,” Hutchinson said. “Rastegar is a first-class person and has built a very good company, and we look forward to doing other projects with them in the future.”
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com
