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BOSTON-Hoping to capture a rising tide of demand for office space, the developers of Channel Center in the city's Seaport District are moving ahead on renovations to the mixed-use complex after receiving a $67-million construction loan from Apollo Real Estate Finance Corp. The client, Commonwealth Center Holdings VAF, is taking on the second phase of a 1.6-million-sf project conceived by Beacon Capital Partners to rehab a strip of gritty industrial buildings and supplement those structures with new housing, office and retail.

"From Day One, we have been excited about the location of Channel Center, as well as the explosion of interest in the Seaport area," developer Richard Galvin says in a release announcing the financing, which was arranged through the Boston office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler. Work will "commence immediately" on renovating three brick buildings lining A Street known as 10, 20 and 30 Channel Center, says Galvin, whose Commonwealth Ventures LLC is teaming with an arm of GE Asset Management to undertake the project.

There are five existing buildings at Channel Center totaling 290,000 sf of space, while there are rights to construct another 800,000 sf of office and residential product. There are also plans for a garage accommodating more than 900 vehicles, a valued element in a property bordering space-starved South Boston's residential area.