$120M in Financing Secured for Redevelopment of 662 KSF M-U Complex in Baltimore

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

The Rotunda, a 217,000-square-foot office and retail complex in Baltimore, is well on the way to being transformed into a premier 662,000-square-foot mixed-use destination, courtesy of a $120 million construction financing deal. Property owner Grande Rotunda L.L.C., an entity owned by Hekemian & Co. Inc. and the First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey, secured the construction loan with the assistance of commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF,

“The deal was very competitive, we had a lot of interest,” Thomas Didio, senior managing director with HFF, told Commercial Property Executive. “In fact a lot of major players and different lender types were looking at it, and we ended up going with Wells Fargo because of the relationship the borrower had with the lender over the past few years.”

Wells Fargo provided a 48-month loan for the redevelopment of the Rotunda, which Grande Rotunda acquired in 2005 for $29.5 million, with the intention of expanding the property.

Located north of downtown Baltimore at 711 W. 40th St., the Rotunda sits on more than 10 acres adjacent to Johns Hopkins University. The redevelopment project will center on the former home of the Maryland Casualty Insurance Co., a four-story building originally developed in 1921. When all is said and done, the Rotunda will feature 379 luxury residential units, approximately 171,000 square feet of retail space, 138,000 square feet of existing office space, and structured and surface parking to accommodate more than 1,000 vehicles.

Mixed-use properties do not outrank multi-family as the lending community’s favorite commercial real estate investment sector, but one wouldn’t know it judging by the response to the Rotunda. “I would say that, where I see it in my market, everybody [in the lending community] wants to do apartments right now and then its retail after that–grocery-anchored retail–then industrial, and then probably office, but there is a flow of equity and debt for projects that are well-sponsored, well-planned, well-designed and well-located like this one is,” Didio added.