More EB-5 from Urban Atlantic: Developer secures $9M for new Mount Vernon Triangle apartments

Published in Washington Business Journal

September 11, 2014 by Michael Neibauer

 

 

Urban Atlantic is busy as a developer, with roles in a variety of local developments, from Walter Reed and Arthur Capper Carrollsburg to Rhode Island Row and Alexandria’s Chatham Square.

But there’s more to the Bethesda-based firm. It is also a financier, of sorts.

On Wednesday, we reported Urban Atlantic and a joint venture partner, LIA Financial Services (Live in America) had secured $16.5 million in EB-5 direct foreign investment for the Metropolitan at College Park, a 238-unit residential building with more than 4,000 square feet of retail.

Within hours of learning of that deal, we heard of another. Urban Atlantic and LIA also announced Wednesday (to Chinese audiences only, the press release uses meters instead of square feet) that the JV had landed $9 million more for 4/L, a luxury mixed-use building planned for the intersection of Fourth and L streets NW in Mount Vernon Triangle.

The project, from Blue Skye Development, Paramount Development and A&W Development, will include 133 residential units across nine stories, 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail (550 meters, per the release), two dozen vehicle parking spaces, 70 bike lockers and a large rooftop deck. Ellisdale Construction is the general contractor.

Work started last week with the demolition of three rowhouses on the site. Excavation is expected to begin within the next 30 days, and the first concrete will be poured within two months. The nearly $40 million project, approved by the Board of Zoning Adjustments this summer, is expected to fully deliver in mid-2016.

Per Ellisdale Construction President Kevin Ash, the loan for the project closed last month. The $9 million in EB-5 money was a “supplement.”

“We’re moving forward in a better position,” he said.

Through the EB-5 program, investors put money into U.S. development projects in exchange for green cards. The investments, which must advance projects and create jobs, are generally in $500,000 or $1 million increments. The regional centers that secure the funding, such as the Live in America centers, collect administrative fees that typically range from $30,000 to $60,000 per application, according to several immigration attorneys who have written on the subject.

The 4/L release was issued by DC Center China, a public-private partnership based in Shanghai with a mission of developing commercial relationships between the District and China. Mayor Vincent Gray and Jeff Miller, D.C.’s interim deputy mayor for planning and economic development, are now concluding a 10-day trade mission to China. They were both in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Per DC Center China, the 4/L project was “fully subscribed within only weeks.”

“We are proud of Washington’s standing as one of the strongest investment markets in the United States, and welcome the economic development made possible through the EB-5 program,” Gray said in the release.

Founded in 1998, Urban Atlantic deems itself a real estate and investment services firm. LIA is the EB-5 financing affiliate of White Plains, New York-based The LCP Group LP.

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