East West Partners and Trammell Crow Residential Break Ground and Close Financing for Village Plaza Apartments in Chapel Hill, NC

CHAPEL HILL, NC (MMD Newswire) June 9, 2015 — A joint venture between local real estate development company, East West Partners and Dallas based Trammell Crow Residential, has closed its debt and equity financing and broken ground on the Village Plaza Apartments (“VPA”) which will be located on Elliot Road in the Ephesus Fordham commercial district of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. VPA is being constructed on a vacant site that was the former home of the Plaza Theater and, upon completion in the summer of 2016, will include 265 Class A multi-family apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space directly adjacent to the Whole Foods anchored Village Plaza retail center. “It’s great to be partnered on this exciting project with Trammell Crow Residential, a national leader in multi-family development.” said Lee Perry, Development Director of East West Partners.”

Equity for the project is being provided by Markel Eagle Partners, LLC. Markel Eagle is a real estate investment advisor owned by the Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL)., an international insurance holding company and the Eagle Companies, a vertically integrated real estate development and construction company, based in Glen Allen, Virginia. Since its inception in 2009 Markel Eagle has invested over $100 million of equity in a variety of real estate assets from Delaware to Georgia. J.B. Gurley, a Principal at Markel Eagle, said “We are thrilled to be investing in this unique development opportunity in Chapel Hill, and to be able to join our partners in bringing such a high quality residential project to what is destined to become one of the Triangle area’s most vibrant commercial districts.” Clark Jenkins, Vice President with Capital Advisors, Inc. helped arrange the acquisition of the site and the equity financing for the project.

Debt financing for the project is being provided by SunTrust. “SunTrust is committed to making loans for high quality projects such as this. Our bank has a long-standing relationship with both Trammell Crow Residential and East West Partners and we look forward to seeing the completion of this fantastic project,” said Doug Miller of SunTrust.

VPA is the first project to gain approval and begin construction in the Ephesus Fordham Form Based Code development district in Chapel Hill. The Town adopted a Form Based Code to encourage investment and redevelopment in a commercial district that had remained stagnant for decades. Chapel Hill has long been known for its lengthy and expensive entitlement process. The Form Based Code is a proactive zoning district that gives developers a detailed vision of the type of development the Town desires and creates a more favorable approval environment if a building is designed to those standards. In discussing the evolution of the development Perry noted that VPA was approved in less than 6 months after submitting initial plans to the Town; prior to the adoption of the Form Based Code the approval process would likely have taken years to complete. “We are thrilled to be building Chapel Hill’s first large-scale, Class A apartment project in several years. Thanks to the vision and foresight of the Town Council and Staff, we believe the Ephesus Fordham area will transform from a dated development pattern to a vibrant 24-hour community in Chapel Hill.”

An in-house subsidiary of Trammell Crow Residential is the general contractor constructing the building and KTGY out of Washington, DC is the architect. CBRE-Raleigh will lead up the retail leasing for the project.

CONTACT:
Lee Perry
East West Partners
919 929-0660
919 967-0959 (fax)
lperry@ewp-nc.com