A Quick Resolution to a Complicated Refinance

Our client purchased a historic building in Houston, Texas and was converting it into a high-rise apartment project with a retail component. Due to construction delays, the project wouldn’t be completed before the maturity of the interim construction financing and the construction lender was unable to extend the construction loan.

To quickly refinance the project while construction continued was complicated, especially because of the unique capital stack in the transaction. The total debt and equity exceeded $200 million. In addition to the construction financing, the project had:

• Financing with a federal historic tax credit investor.
• Equity financing with a state historic tax credit investor.
• Debt financing secured by the equity commitment of the state historic tax credit.
• Mezzanine debt financing.
• Municipal tax increment reinvestment zone economic incentives.
• Debt financing secured by the municipal tax increment reinvestment zone economic incentives.

We closed the refinancing during the summer months, within approximately 90 days from start to finish, and our fees were substantially less than the lender’s legal fees.