$71M in Financing for 900 7th St.

WASHINGTON, DC-Chicago, IL-based CorusBankshares subsidiary Corus Bank makes possible a $70.8 million financing loan for the construction of the 350,000-sf class A office building at 900 Seventh St., a development project of The John Akridge Companies and the National Electrical Benefit Fund. The deal is extra sweet for the developers as Corus made the unusual move of committing to the full loan amount without a participant in place, and to deferring the equity formula for financing project expenditures.

“The developer knows that not every lender who issues a term letter will actually be prepared to come to the table when it is time to close the deal,” Corus first vice president Dwight Frankfather says, emphasizing loan financing endeavors in today’s soft real estate market. “When Akridge approached us, the company was ready to break ground, and they wanted to start negotiations with a lender they thought they could trust to follow through to the end. Because Corus Bank brought the loan committee to the site and met the principals within a week of receiving the loan request, both sides quickly came to the conclusion that this deal could be done.”