Walker & Dunlop Arranges $59 Million Construction Financing for Celebration Pointe Apartments

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it arranged $58.8 million in construction financing for Celebration Pointe Apartments, a 239-unit Class A multifamily development located in the master development of Celebration Pointe in Gainesville, Florida.

Walker & Dunlop's Tampa Debt & Structured Finance team, led by Jeremy Pino, Livingston Hessam, Carl Passmore, and Kyle Miller, arranged the transaction on behalf of Viking Companies. The team secured a 65% non-recourse senior loan from a life insurance company, which they coupled with mezzanine financing from a debt and equity fund for a total debt capitalization of 85% loan-to-cost.

Over the past nine months, life insurance companies have begun creatively expanding their product offerings to address the gap in the market left by commercial banks tightening their lending standards. This includes moving into construction lending, resulting in the favorable terms for this transaction.

"This financing was closed during a time of uncertainty in the overall capital markets and limited options for construction debt," said Jeremy Pino, senior director of Capital Markets. "We were able to deliver an impressive non-recourse solution for 85% of the capital stack, attesting to the strength of the sponsor and the project."

Celebration Pointe Apartments will benefit from high visibility due to its proximity to major infrastructure and a heavily trafficked thoroughfare, as well as its vicinity to Gainesville's major employment hub and education center, which is only 2.5 miles away. This one-of-a-kind development gives West Gainesville a downtown feel, with family-friendly, safe, and appealing points of interest for the local community and residents. Viking Development is the master developer for the Celebration Pointe project.

"We are extremely happy to get this project financed with the assistance of Walker & Dunlop," said Svein Dyrkolbotn, principal owner of Viking Companies. "Celebration Pointe is a live, work, and play community, so providing 239 residential units is a vital component to our continued success."

In 2022, Walker & Dunlop’s Capital Markets group sourced capital for transactions totaling nearly $26 billion from non-Agency capital providers. This vast experience has made them a top advisor on all asset classes for many of the industry’s top developers, owners, and operators. To learn more about Walker & Dunlop’s broad financing options, visit our website.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) is one of the largest commercial real estate finance and advisory services firms in the United States. Our ideas and capital create communities where people live, work, shop, and play. The diversity of our people, breadth of our brand and technological capabilities make us one of the most insightful and client-focused firms in the commercial real estate industry.

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