Florida Build-To-Rent Project Secures $71M Construction Loan

The proceeds will fund the horizontal and vertical construction of a 360-unit townhome, build-to-rent project.

Dan Gorczycki, formerly of Avison Young and now with TrueRate, has closed a $71.5 million revolving construction loan for a build-to-rent project in Brandon, FL by Brandon Development Partners. 

Corevest Finance is financing the horizontal and vertical construction of a 360-unit townhome, project on an approximately 60-acre site. The floating-rate revolving loan features full-term interest-only payments for its 30-month duration.

The funding covers phase one of a two-phase, 660-unit townhome development. The property will be built in six sub-phases. Its amenities will include a pool, fitness center, dog park, walking trail, firepits and mixed-use buildings with stores.

Brandon is a submarket within the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area that had a booming housing market before Covid. Post-COVID, the area should have robust demand for townhomes, according to TrueRate. 

Sudha Reddy, managing principal of Haven Realty Capital, told GlobeSt.com that Tampa was one of the top markets for SFR development. Others included Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston and Austin, Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Orlando and Jacksonville.

“Builders are building in all these markets for the same reason that SFR operators are investing in them,” Reddy said. “As a result, all these markets are conducive to partnerships between builders and operators.” 

With such strong growth, developers are jockeying to grab land in the market. When Brookfield Residential acquired Newland, one of the nation’s largest master-planned community developers, earlier this month, Tampa was one of nine markets to which it gained access. The others were Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle-Tacoma, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Wilmington, and Charleston.