JOPPATOWNE, MD - Meridian Capital Group has lined up $10 million in construction financing for a Harford County apartment complex, a process that started during the financial meltdown in October 2008 when credit virtually dried up for most construction projects across the nation. The money will enable the developers of Harborside Village Apartments in Joppatowne to develop a third-phase of their waterfront residential complex, the first part of it having been built about three decades earlier.
Tal Savariego, a Meridian representative who brokered the deal, said the project's timing was extremely challenging because it came during the wave of Wall Street bankruptcies among firms including Lehman Bros. Holdings and Merrill Lynch. But even with those challenges, he said, a half-dozen lenders came forward to offer financing and he was pleased with the outcome.
"It's been a tough market, and I think that's the important factor for people to realize, that things are getting done," Savariego said in a telephone interview.
The 300-unit Harborside Village Apartments were built along Towne Center Drive in the mid-1970s.
The developer is planning to build a third phase of its Harborside Village project, slated to include an additional 84 garden-style apartments. Site work has already begun, and the project could take about 18 months.
Savariego declined to identify either the developer or the lender, but property records indicate the land is owned by a Joppa company called Rumsey Towers Limited Partnership.
New York-based Meridian, in a press release, described the lender as a "private-held real estate company founded over 40 years ago and focused on development and ownership of garden-style multifamily complexes in the northeast."
Given market conditions, Savariego said, the deal was structured as a three-year, interest-only loan to give the developer enough time to complete construction and fill the additional apartment units. The project was designed to benefit from an expansion at the nearby Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is preparing to take on an estimated 8,200 military jobs under a federal Base Realignment and Closure plan by 2011.
Source: Baltimore Business Journal