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Bridge Over Troubled Water

APARTMENT FINANCE TODAY • July/August 2010

BY Jerry Ascierto

Wells Fargo has rejuvenated its floating-rate bridge loan program for multifamily properties, while Greystone is getting ready to announce a similar bridge loan program tied to the company’s agency permanent loan executions.

The news comes fresh on the heels of a similar move from Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., as more institutional lenders see greater demand for—and grow more comfortable with— debt for transitional assets.

Wells Fargo’s bridge loan program, which is a balance sheet-execution, acts as a feeder to the company’s agency permanent loan programs, buying some time for a property to build up occupancy. Since the bridge loans are highly structured, the pricing, terms, and parameters of the program are relatively fluid.

While properties coming out of construction are one of the program’s targets, Wells Fargo has also seen an increasing demand in other areas of late. “The last month or so, we’ve seen a good number of acquisition-related deals, where someone wants to come in, maybe do some work on the property, and get it re-stabilized,” says Vince Toye, managing director and head of GSE production at the San Francisco-based bank.

In late June, New Yorkbased Greystone was getting ready to introduce a similar bridge loan program tied to its agency executions. The program was still under development as of press time, but the company hoped to unveil it early in the second half of 2010.