Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital LLC (BWE), a national commercial and multifamily mortgage banking company, recently closed on $43,135,000 in construction financing for 15 Sable Apartments, an affordable housing community in Aurora. Anthea Martin, senior vice president in BWE’s Denver office, originated the loan through a private placement on behalf of the borrowers, DBG Properties and Featherstone Development.
“With the need for more affordable housing in Aurora being so acute, we were proud to partner with Featherstone Development and DBG Properties to execute this loan in under 90 days so that they could quickly start creating homes for lower-income Coloradoans,” said Martin. “Building new homes like these is key to solving our housing affordability crisis, and BWE will continue to work with partners across the country to bring financing to projects that create good homes for families in need.”
15 Sable Apartments is a four-story apartment complex that will be situated on a walkable, transit-oriented development site, giving residents easy access to local employment, amenity retail and public transit connections to other parts of the metro area. The $56 million project will contain a mix of 78 one-bedroom/one-bathroom, 68 two-bedroom/two-bathroom and eight three-bedroom/two-bathroom apartments, as well as indoor and outdoor amenity spaces, including a community/great room, fitness center, outdoor game lawn, patio area and children’s play area. The homes will all be affordable to Colorado families earning no greater than 70% of Aurora’s area median income (AMI), including 12 units set aside for households earning no greater than 30% AMI. The developers have also committed to keeping the property affordable to lower-income residents for at least 40 years, adding much-needed affordable homes to Aurora’s housing stock for the foreseeable future.
The project was made possible through the support of the City of Aurora, in particular Councilmember Ruben Medina and Aurora’s Housing and Community Services Department, a property tax abatement partnership with Aurora Housing Authority (AHA), a private activity bond allocation from Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), a subordinate loan from Colorado Department of Local Affairs Division of Housing (CDOH), a tax credit equity investment from Arizona-based Affordable Housing Partners (AHP) and a sale of property by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). Denver-based Shopworks provided the architectural services.
“Featherstone Development and my partner DBG Properties are extremely proud to bring 154 units of affordable housing to such a central, well-connected location,” said Featherstone Development Founder Ted Featherstone. “It took three years, multiple permutations, and the continued patience and support of the City of Aurora, AHA, CDOH, RTD, and the prior landowners to get to groundbreaking. We couldn’t be more thankful for everyone involved.”
BWE provided tax-exempt and taxable loans through the BWE Private Placement platform, which offers developers a single source of competitive, fixed-rate construction-to-permanent debt financing. The loan features an 18-year term with a 40-year amortization and interest-only payments for the first six years from closing.
