Joppatowne, MD —Meridian Capital Group has recently arranged a construction loan in the amount of $10,000,000 for Harborside Apartments in Joppatowne, Maryland, which is a bedroom community of Baltimore. Tal Savariego of Meridian's New York office successfully negotiated on behalf of the borrower a 3-year interest-only Libor based term. Throughout the process, which commenced in the midst of the financial market turmoil of October 2008, Mr. Savariego worked side by side with the borrower and lender to overcome current market volatility in the capital markets. "We began this process during a week when the financial markets suffered very dramatic systemic shocks due to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and developments at AIG and Merrill Lynch and experienced volatile headlines throughout the process. I am grateful to the lender and borrower for compromising on loan terms and remaining committed to the project despite tough conditions in credit markets."

The loan will be used to construct the third phase of a 300-unit garden-style apartment complex located along the Chesapeake Bay and built and operated by the borrower since the mid-1970s. Harborside is the only multifamily rental complex in this bedroom community of Baltimore, and the third phase is expected to accommodate the expansion of Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is the country's oldest active proving ground and will add 8,000 personnel and 22,000 jobs by 2011 as part of US Dept of Defense's BRAC process. The Sponsor is a private-held real estate company founded over 40 years ago and focused on the development and ownership of garden-style multifamily complexes in the northeast. "Credit markets remain very tight. In this case, we were fortunate to have a Sponsor with an excellent balance sheet and a solid portfolio of multifamily properties financed with long-term non-recourse debt and generating very strong annual cash flows. The Sponsor's experience and conservative investment style were critical elements for the lender's approval process."

Founded in 1991, Meridian Capital Group LLC is one of the nation's largest mortgage brokerages serving the multifamily and commercial real estate sectors. The company is based in New York City with additional offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Florida and California. Working with a wide variety of lenders, Meridian finances transactions ranging from $500,000 to more than $500 million for multifamily, co-op, office, retail, hotel, healthcare, self-storage, industrial, and construction properties. Nationally, Meridian reported more than 2,250 transactions in 2008, totaling over $11.5 billion.