Firstar Bank, Nuveen Green Capital Lend $46M for Oklahoma Retail Project

Parkes Development Group has secured $46 million of construction financing to build a retail development in suburban Tulsa, Okla., Commercial Observer has learned.

Firstar Bank originated a $24.1 million senior loan while Nuveen Green Capital (NGC) provided a $21.9 million Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loan for the developer’s planned 200,000-square-foot Adams Creek Town Center project in Broken Arrow, Okla.  Parkes is set to begin construction this summer on the shopping center on a vacant 23-acre lot next to a Lowe’s with a mix of pre-leased tenants including Burlington Coat Factory, Home Centric and Books-A-Million.

Sean Ribble, senior director at NGC, said the C-PACE loan closed at a 38 percent loan-to-cost ratio and helped the borrower fill a gap in the capital stack with long-term fixed-rate capital. Proceeds from the C-PACE loan will be used to fund key aspects of the project including mechanical, electrical  and plumbing systems along with the building’s envelope.

“In the state of Oklahoma we’re able to lend up to 35 percent loan to value, and so you could get to roughly 38 percent loan to cost because we had plenty of room from a loan-to-value versus loan-to-cost basis,” Ribble told CO. “Because this was a retail development project that was strongly pre-leased, there was a lot of value creation from that.”

Ribble noted that in the short time since Oklahoma’s C-PACE program was fully launched, NGC has executed $85 million worth of loans with more than 75 percent market share thanks to a “grassroots” effort to educate sponsors and localities of the advantages of incorporating it into deals.

The Adams Creek project is slated for completion in 2027 and is positioned for success, according to Ribble, because of its location just 15 miles outside of Tulsa. Ribble also said NGC is looking to incorporate more retail specific developments into its lending portfolio because of some strong tailwinds for the sector of late. 

“This project represents a significant investment in the community, fostering economic growth and creating new retail opportunities for both residents of Broken Arrow as well as the surrounding metro areas,” Ryan Yates, Tulsa market president at Firstar Bank, said in a statement.

Officials at Parkes Development Group did not immediately return a request for comment.

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com