PNC provides $51m loan for Sunrise, Florida rental community

PNC Bank has provided a $51m loan to The Richman Group for the development of a 417-unit rental complex set to rise in Sunrise, Florida.

The loan refinances a previous $25m loan SunTrust Bank provided when West Palm Beach-based Richman purchased the land from K Group Holdings for $15.4m in May. SunTrust provided an additional $7.7m mezzanine loan at the time.

While K Group purchased the 6.9-acre plot of land for just $6.5m in July 2008, the markup to $15.4m, representing more than $2.2m per acre, was hailed as a milestone for the pricing of residential land in the Sunrise neighborhood, which is renowned more for its commercial development.

Portico will eventually host a 417-unit apartment development comprised of four-, five- and six-story buildings and 766 parking units, and the developers hope it will strike the right balance with surrounding commercial development and up-and-coming residential.

Sunrise as a retail destination for tourists was spearheaded by the nearby Sawgrass Mills outlet mall, which broke ground in the early 1990s and today features more than 2.3m sq ft. Sunrise is also home to the 612-acre Sawgrass International Corporate Park.

In addition, the Portico sight is adjacent to a proposed 65-acre mixed-use development dubbed Metropica, which carries a reported price tag of at least $1bn and will feature as many as 2,500 condos, 300 townhomes and about 800,000 sq ft of office space.

Portico is expected to open in August of next year.