Hall Structured Finance lending $300 million for new projects

Dallas-based Hall Group is one of the area’s best-known developers, with its huge Hall Park business campus in Frisco and the Hall Arts project downtown.

But a fast-growing part of the company’s business is about lending, not building.

Hall Structured Finance plans to make more than $300 million in construction loans this year for projects including hotels and apartments.

The company has already financed over $50 million in construction during the first two months of the year.

With traditional bank lenders pulling back from some of their construction funding, Hall Structured Finance president Mike Jaynes says the time is right to grow his firm’s private lending business.

“Some of the banks are completely out of construction financing, which is what we are focused on,” Jaynes said. “Others have really shrunk that business considerably.

Hall just financed a $37.7 million loan for a 326-unit apartment community in Orlando, Fla. And the finance firm provided a $14.7 million construction loan for a new Marriott in Delaware.

“We used to focus mainly on hotels,” Jaynes said. “We are now seeing opportunities on other product types.

“We’ve done an almost fully presold condominium project in Fort Lauderdale. We did a student housing project at Texas A&M University.”

Jaynes said that in the last seven or eight months, bank lenders have tightened their underwriting for construction loans, and developers are looking for alternative sources.

“The private lenders like ourselves are reaping the benefit on good quality projects with good quality developers.”

Some of Hall Structured Finance’s recent deals:

•  $37.7M construction loan: Millennium at Citrus Ridge Apartments in Kissimmee, Fla.

•  $14.7M construction loan: SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Newark, Del.

•  $19.97M construction loan: EVEN Hotel in Miami

•   $35.6M construction loan: The Gale Residences in Fort Lauderdale

•   $10.9M construction loan: Towneplace Suites by Marriott in Milwaukee

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