Barings and Counterpointe Provide $315.5 Million in Construction Financing for Mixed-Use Development in Los Angeles

September 04, 2024 at 09:00 AM EDT

Barings, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, announced today that it has provided a $160 million construction loan alongside $155.5 million in C-PACE financing from a subsidiary of Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors (“Counterpointe”) for the development of Habitat, a live-work-thrive campus in Los Angeles with creative office, luxury residential, retail, and an integrated park.

“We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Lendlease on this exceptional development, leveraging our in-house expertise in construction lending alongside Counterpointe’s established C-PACE program to offer a customized capital solution,” said Justin Preftakes, Head of Construction Lending at Barings. “We see significant opportunity in construction lending given the pullback from more traditional sources of capital, combined with high barriers to entry, and we’re excited to be able to execute on this type of complex transformational project.”

The $160.0 million senior loan provided by Barings has a five-year term and the $155.5 million C-PACE financing from Counterpointe has a 30-year term. This transaction marks the third project in which Barings and Counterpointe have partnered to provide creative construction financing with a lower blended cost of capital.

“The Habitat financing, provided by the partnership of Counterpointe and Barings, offers sustainable debt capital for an exceptional Lendlease development. Our integrated offering of C-PACE and construction mortgage full stack financing encourages borrowers to construct green buildings and finance sustainable projects with competitive rates, efficient process, and certainty of execution,” said Eric Alini, Chief Executive Officer of Counterpointe. “We are proud to partner with Lendlease to help move this exciting project forward while creating sustainable investments for investors.”

Located at 3401 S. La Cienega Boulevard and offering immediate access to the LA Metro and Expo Bike Path, Habitat sits in the center of the city – where Culver City meets the heart of Los Angeles, a vibrant and walkable community popular with ‘techtainment’ companies. Upon completion, which is scheduled in early 2026, the property will feature a six-story, 253,000 square-foot creative office building and a 12-story, 260-unit multifamily building, plus restaurant, retail, and amenity space. Habitat has been designed to prioritize sustainability, targeting LEED Gold for the residential building and LEED Platinum for the commercial building, and will be net zero carbon in construction and operations.

This financing expands Barings’ $24.2+ billion* real estate debt platform, which leverages the team’s broad direct origination capabilities and deep credit expertise to invest in loans secured by institutional-quality commercial real estate in strategic locations in North America and Europe.

About Barings

Barings is a $409+ billion* global asset management firm that partners with institutional, insurance, and intermediary clients, and supports leading businesses with flexible financing solutions. The firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, seeks to deliver excess returns by leveraging its global scale and capabilities across public and private markets in fixed income, real assets and capital solutions.

^{*Assets under management as of June 30, 2024}

About Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors

Since 2013, Counterpointe and its affiliates have had a major impact in reducing the commercial building sector’s carbon footprint and in providing resiliency to the nation’s infrastructure. A majority-owned subsidiary of MassMutual, Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors operates at the intersection of commercial real estate and energy industries through diversified sustainable infrastructure investments including mortgages, PACE and other energy financial tools.

About Lendlease

Lendlease is an integrated real estate group with operations in Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:LLC), our core capabilities are reflected in our operating segments of Investments, Development and Construction. The combination of these three segments provides us with a sustainable competitive advantage in delivering innovative integrated solutions for our customers.