HOUSTON-A South Florida buyer obtained a $43.1-million loan to acquire the 398-unit Villas at Bunker Hill from Falcon Southwest in Austin, TX. With help from the Freddie Mac loan, the buyer paid $56.7 million for the class A, 92.5%-occupied multifamily property.

According to James Kelly, vice president, mortgage banking with Centerline Capital Group, though the sponsor was well-regarded and the property at 9757 Pine Lake Dr. well-positioned, a couple of things stood in the way of a seamless closing. Kelly, who represented the borrower in the transaction, says the loan had an additional component of $4 million of preferred equity broken down into two classes. Freddie Mac, he says, doesn't offer a loan with those terms too often though "it was made much easier because we had a strong, experienced borrower that set up similar programs in the past, and our office has closed on preferred equity deals in the past as well," Kelly tells GlobeSt.com.

Another challenge, he went on to say, was environmental issues; the property had been cleaned several years ago with superfund money. Though everything had been remediated many years ago, Kelly says this still required a couple of extra steps and some paperwork to move through.