Walker & Dunlop arranges $630.6M Fannie Mae refinance for IMT Capital

Walker & Dunlop has arranged $630.6 million of fixed-rate Fannie Mae loans to refinance nine IMT Capital apartment properties, a 3,528-unit portfolio spread across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee and Texas. The nine loans, which closed between May 1 and Sept. 1, came out on identical terms: five years, fixed rate, full-term interest-only payments and a 35-year amortization schedule.

The structure is more specific than it sounds, because the amortization never runs: full-term interest-only means the 35-year schedule sizes the loan without ever setting a payment the borrower actually makes, and interest-only across all five years leaves the full $630.6 million due as a single balloon. Whatever debt service the nine properties throw off today is the coverage the loan was sized to, while the principal that would ordinarily retire in slices over the term instead waits at the end of it.

Walker & Dunlop Capital Markets Real Estate Finance refinanced the existing loans on IMT's behalf, and Matt Wallach, a managing director in the firm's capital markets real estate finance group, called the six-state execution the point of the deal. "This transaction demonstrates our ability to coordinate large-scale portfolio financings across multiple markets while delivering consistent terms for our clients," Wallach said. Andrew Wizenberg, a managing director at IMT Capital, described the refinancing as "optimizing our capital structure while investing in high-quality multifamily communities."

The financing lands in a busy stretch for Walker & Dunlop alongside a very different deal the firm arranged a week earlier: a $238 million floating-rate bridge for The Landmark South in Doral, Florida, funded by Torchlight Investors for JSB Capital across 631 units. That piece was short-term, floating and single-asset, while the IMT portfolio is permanent, fixed-rate, agency and nine assets at once.

The agency channel has been the steadier half of multifamily debt all year. The Mortgage Bankers Association's third-quarter delinquency report put overall CMBS delinquency at 6.53%, down 42 basis points, while the bank book improved to 1.20% and life-company and agency multifamily rates edged up but held below 1%. Against that gap, a sponsor with performing assets and a clean story can reach permanent agency money first.

The apartment maturity wall is being rolled rather than resolved, with the lenders who control extension terms setting the next vintage of ownership. The IMT refinancing sits on the healthy side of that market: nine properties and 3,528 units moved through the agency window on ordinary terms, and the borrower's reward was five years of fixed-rate debt that does not amortize. Sponsors with steady cash flow exit that way, which is what keeps the maturity wall a rolling problem, and the whole $630.6 million comes back to the market in 2031, when the interest-only period ends.