SF New Developments

“144 new units: 95 new condos and 47 brick-and-timber rehabs”…

“Construction is expected to take 14 to 16 months with a sales office opening in May or June.”

San Francisco Business Times - January 5, 2007 by J.K. Dineen

San Francisco developer Build Inc. has secured a $93.4 million construction loan for a condo project at 900 Minnesota St. — an increasingly rare occurrence as lenders fear overexposure to urban condominium developments.

The loan was secured by Kearny Capital Partners and the lender is the Australia-based Macquarie Bank, according to Kearny Capital Principal Kurt Scheidt.

The project at the former Esprit de Corp headquarters in the Dogpatch will have 144 units, including 95 new condos and 47 brick-and-timber rehabs.

The loan was structured as a “participating first mortgage” deal, where the lender agrees to more exposure in exchange for a percentage of the profits.

Scheidt said his team started in August with a list of 25 lenders typically interested in $100 million urban condo deals, but that most declined.

“It was a real quick conversation with two-thirds of the list,” said Scheidt. “It wasn’t that they have too much condo exposure in San Francisco, it was that they have too much condo exposure, period. Too much exposure in San Diego, too much condo exposure in Houston, and too much condo exposure in Miami — I heard that one a lot.”

While some lenders are clearly still interested in San Francisco condos — which have held up better than most cities in a slumping residential real estate market — lenders are increasingly asking developers to increase their portion of the investment. In the past 12 months, the…[continue to article]