CHICAGO-The developers and owners of the 72-story Legacy at Millennium Park condo building have pulled off what some deem impossible – they have refinanced a half-full property. Only 55% of the 356-unit tower have been sold, but Mesa Development LLC and Walsh Investors gained $60.6 million to help pay off a $275.5 million construction loan.
The developers used the loan, provided by US Bank and Private Bank, along with the proceeds of prior sales and another reported $30 million in equity to refinance the remaining $91 million loan. The venture also has hired @properties to try to find buyers for the tower, which is across the street from the popular park. Prices for the units range from the upper $350,000s to $6 million for a 9,301-square-foot penthouse.
The property had opened in 2009 with the fanfare of being almost sold out, but many buyers had to cancel their contracts, Mesa principal James Hanson tells GlobeSt.com. “That was the state of the market at that point, people who had contracted in 2007-08, their lives changed when the world changed,” he says.
However, Hanson says he thinks because this is one of the top condo projects downtown today, the building should fill up. Though apartments are now more popular than condos, the urban living movement, with people wanting to live in the convenience and bustle of a downtown, is still the trend. “We’ve sold more than $5 million in product just since Jan. 1, we’re seeing good momentum in the building,” Hanson says. “Bringing in @properties will help, they had the largest volume of closed sales last year, and they have a lot of contacts with brokers, which is where we are getting sales today.”
He says his team was lucky, that it’s tough to find banks today that will lend to a regular struggling condo project today. “We put together our strategy of what we could do and where we wanted to be, and how we would meet our milestones, and took them our plan and they said they would do it,” Hanson says. “We think buyers are going to be out there. We’re seeing positive signs, especially in the past 60 days. People have put their life on hold for the past four years, they haven’t made a major decision since 2008 – now is the time.”
The development team and @properties are all based in Chicago. US Bank is based in Minneapolis, and Private Bank is a subsidiary of PrivateBancorp Inc., is based in Chicago.
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