Mavik lends $299M to Empire for 533-unit Tempe apartment towers

Empire Group of Companies has secured $299 million in construction financing for Revelry, a 533-unit apartment complex in downtown Tempe, Arizona; Mavik provided the debt, WAY Capital arranged the deal, and Commercial Observer first reported it.

The project at 965 East University Drive sits near Arizona State University and will rise as two towers of 15 and 17 stories, carrying 16,300 square feet of ground-floor retail and more than 100,000 square feet of amenities, a list that runs from a rooftop terrace and resort-style pool to pickleball courts, a bowling alley, a dog wash and coworking space. Across 533 apartments, the loan works out to about $561,000 a unit, and the common areas come to roughly 188 square feet per unit; on completion the complex will rank among the tallest buildings in the Tempe skyline.

Mavik's team framed the loan as a bet on the submarket rather than the single asset, with Dan Cooperman, the firm's head of investments, saying it reflected "the opportunity we see where strong real estate fundamentals and a disciplined credit lens come together." Managing director Mike Fishbein cited the site's proximity to Arizona State and downtown Tempe, along with its high-rise design, in calling the project a compelling addition to the market, and WAY Capital's Malcolm Davies and Kyle McDonough arranged the transaction.

As this publication has argued, the build-over-buy trade rests on a construction freeze that keeps new inventory scarce, and the debt written under those conditions goes to sponsors who can clear the equity check; this loan puts Empire in that group. The underwriting leans on location and format: an academic tenant base, a walkable address, and a high-rise footprint built around amenity load. On the other side of that argument, the supply gap widens for projects that never clear their equity.

Empire partner Randy Grudzinski described the aim as delivering "the most elevated of residential experiences within highly valued, walkable urban core locations." The coverage leaves out the equity Empire is contributing, the total project cost and the resulting loan-to-cost ratio, and it does not date the ground-breaking or the delivery. For a construction loan, the draw schedule and the completion clock carry the risk, and both remain open.