CIT Group announced that CIT Real Estate Finance provided a $32 million senior secured loan to Spirit Bascom Ventures, a joint venture between New York City–based Spirit Investment Partners, LLC, and Irvine, California–based The Bascom Group, LLC. The financing will be used to acquire and renovate “The Reserve at Heritage Oaks,” a 444-unit garden apartment complex located in Tallahassee, Florida. Financing was provided by CIT Bank, the U.S. commercial bank subsidiary of CIT. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We are pleased to build upon our existing relationship with Spirit Bascom Ventures in providing this financing that will allow them to acquire and renovate The Reserve at Heritage Oaks,” said Matt Galligan, President of CIT Real Estate Finance. “We were able to utilize our local real estate industry expertise to structure a transaction that will create much-needed Class A housing for the growing Tallahassee market. We look forward to building our relationship with Spirit Bascom Ventures as they continue to build their portfolio of properties throughout the United States.”
David Nachman, Principal of Spirit Investment Partners, said: “This property is a great addition to our growing portfolio of multifamily assets. We look forward to transforming this property into a Class A apartment community, which will benefit by being centrally located in Florida’s capital city, home to thousands of municipal, state and federal jobs and several universities. We chose to work with CIT again because we knew that Matt and his team would execute this deal expeditiously and flawlessly and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”
In 2013, CIT Real Estate Finance provided a $33.3 million senior secured loan to Spirit Bascom Ventures to acquire “Jefferson at 55/77 Water”—two five-story buildings containing 136 multi-family units above more than 28,000 square feet of office space in South Norwalk, Connecticut.
Spirit Bascom Ventures, a joint venture between Spirit Investment Partners, LLC, and The Bascom Group, LLC, was formed to acquire distressed and value added multifamily assets in the northeast, southeast and midwest markets. Spirit is a New York City–based real estate investment and management company owned and operated by principals David Nachman, Scott Zwilling and Ian Hafner that has holdings in the northeast and midwest. Bascom, founded by principals Jerry Fink, David Kim and Derek Chen, is one of the most active and seasoned buyers and operators of apartment communities in the United States.
Founded in 1908, CIT is a financial holding company with approximately $35 billion in financing and leasing assets. It provides financing, leasing and advisory services to its clients and their customers across more than 30 industries. CIT maintains leadership positions in middle market lending, factoring, retail and equipment finance, as well as aerospace, equipment and rail leasing.