Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it arranged $51 million in construction financing for Sky Building located three miles north of Ft. Lauderdale's central business district and within an Opportunity Zone. The exceptional mid-rise development is mixed-use in nature and will house 136 affordable and workforce units, connected by skybridge to the City of Oakland Park’s new City Hall, alongside roughly 15,000 SF of ground floor retail.

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Sky Building Project (Photo: Business Wire)

Walker & Dunlop's team included Jeremy Pino, Livingston Hessam, Carl Passmore, and Kyle Miller of Capital Markets group and FHA Financing experts David Strange and Keith Melton. Together they arranged a creative financing execution above 80% loan to cost (LTC), non-recourse through the capital stack, by leveraging relationships with senior construction lenders as well as debt and equity funds.

"It's been a great privilege to partner with Walker & Dunlop to design a transformative project that we hope will become a new civic, residential, and commercial center for the community," said Nir Shoshani, principal of NRI Investments. "This project addresses much-needed affordable and workforce housing within South Florida and will be a staple in the community for years to come."

NRI Investments, a well-established South Florida and veteran Miami real estate developer, is the sponsor. NRI has a signed development agreement, lease agreement, and purchase & sale agreement for this 2.07- acre site with the City of Oakland Park.

The property is within a designated Economic Opportunity Zone census tract. Opportunity zones encourage long-term investments in designated low-income areas by offering incentives in the form of lower or deferred capital gains taxes.

"We were able to arrange the ideal financing solution by taking advantage of the opportunity zone benefits, which requires the developer to hold the asset for a minimum of ten years," said Jeremy Pino, senior director of Capital Markets at Walker & Dunlop. "Our team was proud to partner with NRI and the City of Oakland Park to address the project's feasibility. It was also important to align interests through investing in the long-term growth of the local community and ensuring that the loan met Opportunity Zone requirements."

Walker & Dunlop is working to achieve its five-year goal of $60B in cumulative affordable and workforce housing finance by the end of 2025. Well on their way to reaching this goal, the affordable team originated $20.4 billion financing over the past two years through HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and capital markets sources. To learn more about our capabilities and financing options, visit our website.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) is one of the largest providers of capital to the commercial real estate industry in the United States, enabling real estate owners and operators to bring their visions of communities — where Americans live, work, shop and play — to life. Our people, brand and technology make W&D one of the most insightful and customer-focused firms in our industry.

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