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July 28, 2008

Flushing, New York - July 28, 2008 - Kennedy Funding, one of the nation’s largest direct private lenders announced that it has closed a $7 million loan to the New York development company Bownetree, LLC for completion of residential properties in Flushing, Queens. Bownetree’s Sam Suzuki plans to use the funds to complete build-out of an 8,800 sq. ft. parcel comprising five attached low-rise rental buildings, each with five two-bedroom units.

Finishing the interior structure of the buildings mandated an expedited loan and considering the lag time usually associated with conventional lenders, Bownetree turned to Kennedy Funding and was able to close within weeks.

“The Bownetree loan gives us an opportunity to help further development in the New York metropolitan area,” says Jeffrey Wolfer, Kennedy Funding President and Co-CEO. “Queens traditionally has attracted a wide variety of residents and professional establishments and the Bownetree apartments show potential of being an important part of the residential landscape. The buildings are up and near completion and represent solid value and a stable lending risk.” Read More »

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July 22, 2008

Arizona Company Moves Ahead on Mixed-Use Complex

July 22, 2008 – Hackensack, New Jersey-based Kennedy Funding, Inc., the direct lending company with a record of closing transactions expediently, announces an $11.5 loan to National Retail Development Partners (NRDP AZV, LLC) for site development and construction of a mixed-use office and retail complex – Ironwood Festival – in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The developer already has obtained site approval for Ironwood Festival, which will comprise six structures holding over 81,000 sq. ft. of retail and 13,285 sq. ft. of office space. NRDP needed to add funding to its own substantial investment to proceed with development. In a market where traditional lenders are turning down even the most qualified borrowers or holding up loans through long application periods, NRDP wanted to close a transaction quickly so they could honor a purchase contract on deadline and move ahead with plans to establish an aesthetic and functional center fitting the Arizona landscape. Kennedy Funding was able to close the loan in just 14 days.

“The reputation of NRDP’s principals precedes them,” says Jeffrey Wolfer, President and Co-CEO of Kennedy Funding. “They have been involved in some of the southwest’s most prestigious commercial enterprises which often are tenanted in the planning or preconstruction phases and Ironwood Festival is no exception. We are very comfortable working with such professionals.” Read More »

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June 23, 2008

Chicago, Illinois, June 23, 2008 – A spectacular high rise residential condominium – Catalyst – will be taking shape in Chicago’s West Loop, thanks to an $8.36 million loan from Kennedy Funding, Inc. The Hackensack-based company recently closed that deal with Catalyst 123, LLC’s Gary A. Rosenberg, a well-known Chicago developer who founded Urban R2, the site purchaser.

Rosenberg contracted with renowned architect Lucien Lagrange to create a building with dramatic angles and distinctive colorful exterior. Once built, Catalyst will offer 217 residential units from the fifth to the 21st level, a three-level, enclosed parking garage with 225 spaces, and more than 15,000 sq. ft. of ground-level retail space. The 22nd floor will house a patio, party room, meeting room, exercise facility and more amenities — including a massage therapy room, sauna, and Jacuzzi — to appeal to the ever-growing population choosing the downtown lifestyle. The pet-friendly Catalyst also offers an indoor dog run. With its prevalent loft buildings The West Loop of Chicago is fast becoming the Midwest counterpart of New York’s Soho, with galleries, restaurants, and clubs. The area is accessible from every point in the city by car, bus, train or subway.

“Gary Rosenberg’s reputation as a seasoned real estate professional and quality developer precedes him, and the location, just minutes from the city’s central commerce area make this the kind of urban venture that warrants funding,” says Jeffrey Wolfer, president and Co-CEO of Kennedy Funding. Read More »

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June 16, 2008

Austin Area Ripe for Development

Hackensack, NJ, June 16, 2008 – Consistent with its reputation for making substantial loans to borrowers throughout the United States, Hackensack-based Kennedy Funding, Inc. announces the closing of a $12.5 million loan to Potranco Limited, LP, a Texas development partnership of Alex Chambers, president and CEO of Blackhawk Development, Austin, and Chip Field.

Potranco will use the loan toward purchasing a 173.56 land tract in Bexar County, TX, in a rapidly developing area that is actually within the jurisdiction of San Antonio. The area – referred to as the “donut hole,” and previously held by the State of Texas General Land Office – had previously been sold at auction but Potranco was able to secure the option when the original purchase fell through.

“This was an excellent turn of events for Potranco in the economic sense,” says Jeffrey Wolfer, president and Co-CEO of Kennedy Funding. “This specific parcel is in the middle of an area with open zoning and just perfect for the kind of mixed-use development that the company envisions. “ Read More »

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June 3, 2008

Hackensack, NJ, June 03, 2008 – Imagine a collection of retreat homes on one to five acres waiting to be built in a North Carolina mountain-ridge setting. Imagine the frustration of developers waiting for a loan from traditional lenders in order to make this a reality. That is what increasingly faces today’s building sector and that is why High Grove Development Group, LLC (Legasus Properties, LLC), turned to Hackensack’s direct lender Kennedy Funding, Inc. for borrowing needs.

Kennedy recently closed on a $9.54 million loan to High Grove whose principals are Robert A. Corliss and Theodore C. Morlok. Based in North Carolina, High Grove plans a 500-acre upscale community – High Grove Estates – at the foothills of the fabled Great Smokey Mountain range. They needed a loan in a short amount of time to proceed with work on 91 lots in the first phase of the development that will set the stage for another 85 lots to be developed eventually. The good news is that 13 of the first 91 homesites already have buyers. The difficult news was that the traditional loan was not forthcoming.

Kennedy was able to provide the funds in short order. On the same day as the High Grove closing, the same developers closed with Kennedy on a $20.5 million loan for their River Rock community 40 miles to the south in Cashiers, NC. Both communities are a short drive from major North Carolina cities and from Atlanta. Read More »

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June 1, 2008

Hackensack, NJ, June 01, 2008 – MOA Hospitality, Inc. owns 33 national brand- affiliated, one- to three-star hotels across the United States, which it operates and/or leases to operators under lease/purchase programs. MOA’s focus is on limited service brands, including Best Western, Comfort Inn, Days Inn, Fairfield Inn and Suites, Howard Johnson, Microtel, Ramada Limited, Super 8, and Travelodge. Their hotel properties are located in 19 states, covering an area from Ellsworth, Maine, to Orlando, Florida, to Los Angeles, California, to Spokane, Washington.

MOA has a good relationship with the American public, making new customers of travelers literally every month of the year. They also have a good relationship with their lender, having received two loans from them in 2007 for restructuring and investment purposes. Putting some of their many properties up as collateral, MOA borrowed a total of $10.8 million, and each of the two loans proceeded expeditiously.

If was therefore natural that, when MOA was in the market for a third loan, they should contact the lender who had closed the first two, the lender with whom they were establishing a strong lender-repeat client bond … the lender named Kennedy Funding. Read More »

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May 12, 2008

Wintdots of St. Thomas Using $6.5 Million to Develop ‘Green’ Community

HACKENSACK, N.J., May 12, 2008 – High above Charlotte Amalie Harbor in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Wintdots Development, LLC is planning an 80-unit luxury community in five buildings. What makes Flagberry Hill unique is the developer’s commitment to the environment. The community will be the first in the region to be fully powered by wind and solar energy, according to Wintdots Principals Glenn and Dorothy Elskoe.

What Wintdots needed was a bridge loan to span the time until its traditional lender acted on second loan processing. What Wintdots really needed was a direct lender like Kennedy Funding, Inc., the Hackensack-based company known in the industry for its ability to accurately assess the viability of potential clients’ visions and to help put these visions on the map.

“What we saw in our evaluation that led to our decision to fund this company was a solid organization offering collateral in a vacation destination that could only appreciate in value,” says Jeffrey Wolfer, Kennedy Co-CEO. He says that the Elskoes collateralized their loan by combining almost 22 acres of raw property on which the community will stand in the island’s South Side District 4 with a commercial building they own in Charlotte District 1. Read More »

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May 5, 2008

Almost $40 Million in Domestic and Offshore Aid for Land Development and Restructuring

Hackensack, NJ, May 5, 2008 – In a lending environment where securing a loan is increasingly out of reach for borrowers, April 16 proved momentous for Hackensack-based Kennedy Funding, Inc. The direct private lending company closed four loans that day, three for land development and one for financial restructuring, totaling almost $40 million.

North Carolina’s Legasus Properties LLC borrowed over $30 million for the development of two upscale Smoky Mountain communities. In St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Wintdots Development needed $6.5 million to create a vacation community overlooking the Charlotte Amalie harbor and the fourth loan, a $1.5 million restructuring deal went to MOA Properties LLC, a hospitality company with moderately priced accommodations. Read More »

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April 28, 2008

Biloxi, Mississippi – Peter A. Simon of West D’Iberville Development, LLC had a dream. He’d had it for a very long time. And he had methodically gone about making it happen.

Simon scouted the Biloxi, Mississippi market for several years, looking for a site to build a casino complex. He knew the Gulf Coast region was perfect for such an establishment, and he was determined to become a part of it. Finally, after patiently but relentlessly pulling things together, he had assembled 36 individual parcels into one 16.3-acre plot. It was a water-view site on the north side of the Back Bay in D’Iberville, just 2.5 miles north of the heart of the casino action in Biloxi. It was worth waiting and working for. It was perfect. And, to top it off, he had gotten site approval from the Mississippi Gaming Commission to build his casino.

Now, if only he could find a loan to get things up and running, he could let the games begin. And he wasn’t about to gamble when the fruition of his dream was literally within reach. So he went with a sure thing, and called Kennedy Funding.

Kennedy Funding, headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey, is one of the largest direct private lenders in the industry. Since 1987, Kennedy has been known as the lender who can deliver the two most important commodities to a borrower: speed and flexibility. Borrowers can receive a commitment in mere hours, a closed loan in just days, and amounts from $1 million up to $100 million and more. Kennedy is also known in the industry as the lender who doesn’t shy away from the tough, problematic, or complex deals. In fact, they have successfully completed so many of them that it is said Kennedy can close transactions that other lenders won’t even consider. Read More »

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April 3, 2008

HACKENSACK, N.J., April 3, 2008 – Kennedy Funding, Inc., a leading direct private lender, has closed a $3.9 million loan to Mills Farm, LLC, of Delaware. The Mills Family, through Mills Farm, LLC, owns four individual tracts of farmland in Milford, Sussex, and Kent counties in Delaware, totaling 631.6 acres. One of the tracts is a working farm operated by the family, with a farmhouse, barn, accessory buildings, and grazing dairy cattle on 215 acres. The other three tracts are raw, undeveloped farmland, and one of them has entitlements for residences to be built.

The Mills family was looking for a loan. They intended to use the loan proceeds to settle and/or pay down some debt, consolidate some other expenses, and conduct further farm business. Their intent was to use the four farming tracts as collateral, but they were unsure of their value in a market that had dropped precipitously in the past 18 months. And they had been hearing for some time that ‘no one was making loans in today’s market.’ Read More »