ATLANTA, GA - Atlanta-headquartered Apartment Realty Advisors (ARA), the premier multifamily investment advisory brokerage firm in the nation, announced the formation of ARA Finance – a joint venture of ARA and CWCapital, LLC. The national venture will provide a full range of mortgage finance services to ARA clients and will leverage CWCapital's existing multifamily, Agency Lending platform. Boston-based CWCapital is one of the nation's leading licensed lenders and servicers under Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (in select regions) and FHA; having closed over $1 billion in multifamily loans in 2008 alone.
The venture marks the beginning of a new era for ARA which has, since its inception in 2003, focused solely on the brokerage of multihousing properties on behalf of an array of institutional, REIT, and private client sellers – a highly successful formula that has positioned them solidly as one of the top two national multihousing brokerages.
"The formation of the venture is in response to our clients' growing need for financing services," says ARA's chairman, Gary Kachadurian. He added, "Our clients certainly had their pick of any multitude of financing platforms but they made it clear that they wanted ARA to provide the financing services. At the end of the day, this is a natural expansion of ARA's platform where we're enhancing our service delivery model to include the very critical financing component."
Kachadurian spearheaded the formation of the venture along with principal, Marc deBaptiste and COO Lisa Robinson. They studied the strategy for over a year and after weighing all alternatives, including starting a platform organically; it was clear that CWCapital has the relationships, infrastructure and financial stability to meet the requirements of ARA's clients.
ARA Finance loan originators are located across the country with key offices in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Seattle. With the venture continuously expanding its multifamily platform, future growth is expected.
ARA Finance is managed by the venture's executive committee made up of three CWCapital executives and three ARA executives. The committee plans to recruit a seasoned multifamily lender/manager to serve as COO in Dallas, Houston or Denver. The COO will assist with the growth and future direction of the venture.
Michael Berman, President of CWCapital, further commented on the joint venture. "We are very pleased to form this partnership and extend our lending platform to the ARA clientele. We feel strongly that our programs and highly experienced staff are the perfect complement to ARA's vast, multifamily brokerage operations and deep client relationships. The CW vertical integration strategy, in which we manage the loan process from application through underwriting and servicing, naturally leads us to new channels which bring us closer to multifamily owners. With both firms committed to growing our platforms while also providing a 'best in class' level of skill and service to our customer, the decision to work together in creating ARA Finance was an obvious one."
Source: Apartment Realty Advisors