The highly structured fixed-rate transaction featured second mortgage rights, prepayment flexibility and substitution rights.

Milwaukee-based Grandbridge senior vice president Jim Cope and assistant vice president Brandon Strong arranged the 15-year refinance through one of the company’s insurance company relationships, Advantus Capital Management, Inc.

The researchers at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services predict that builders will deliver 1,865 rental units in 2012. That’s the highest this figure has stood in eight years. It also dwarves multi-family activity in 2011, when builders delivered 477 multi-family markets to the Minneapolis/St. Paul market.

The news is not all good, though. Marcus & Millichap is predicting that vacancies in the Twin Cities multi-family sector will rise 20 basis points in 2012 to 2.8 percent. The reason for this is fairly obvious: The number of new units delivered by builders will exceed a smaller increasein demand among Twin Cities consumers.

Don’t expect the rising vacancies, though, to hurt rents. According to Marcus & Millichap, operators should be able to raise asking rents 2.9 percent by the end of 2012 to $987 a month. Effective rents will see an even bigger increase, a predicted 4.5 percent to $956 a month.

This is all good news for the Twin Cities. Overall, Marcus & Millichap ranks Minneapolis/St. Paul as the 10th-best multi-family market in the country. That’s down a bit from 2011, when Marcus ranked the Twin Cites as the eighth-best such market, but it’s still a solid ranking. And it provides yet more evidence that the multi-family market here, and in most Midwest markets, remains the best commercial real estate bet out there.

Berriz has extensive experience in the acquisition, financing, management and redevelopment of real estate assets. He is responsible for acquiring and managing assets of more than $7 billion during his career.

During Polsinelli’s tenure, McKinley’s portfolio has increased more than 50 percent in its target markets. He has acquired, financed or disposed of more than $2 billion of real estate assets across the Midwest and Southeast.

“Ken and I both look forward to working with the National Multi Housing Council in the future and feel that our broad experience and knowledge of the multi-family market can only add to the broad wealth of experience on the NMHC Board,” said Berriz.

And little wonder: As Cydney White, first vice president of investments for Chicago’s Equity Residential, said, these younger adults are actually faring better in today’s economy than are most others. The unemployment rate for the Echo Boomers actually stands at a low 4.4 percent. These Echo Boomers, then, have enjoyed the benefits of most of the jobs created in 2011 and early 2012.

Because of this, these consumers are driving many commercial real estate trends today, including the solid performance of the Midwest’s multi-family market. The Echo Boomers are in their household formation years. But instead of buying single-family homes, a large number of these consumers are choosing to rent.

“The Echo Boomers are delaying marriage. They are more interested in renting. They want to be more flexible,” White said during the panel discussion.

In fact, White said, many of the Echo Boomers are putting off buying their first homes until they hit 30 or beyond.

The message for commercial developers is clear: Multi-family will remain hot well beyond 2012. And when it comes to financing, multi-family projects will be some of the most attractive to commercial lenders.

“There was a time during the housing boom when people got out of college, found a job and then bought a condo the very next day,” Zell said. “I remember thinking, ‘What are these young people doing tying themselves down that way?’ That’s changing now. Young people are realizing that they don’t have to get on that track.”

Zell made his comments during his fireside chat with Debra Cafaro, chief executive officer of Chicago-based seniors housing and healthcare REIT Ventas Inc., during the 10th annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference Jan. 24.

During the Chicago event, hosted by Illinois Real Estate Journal and the Real Estate Publishing Group, Zell and Cafaro drew a crowd of more than 1,000 attendees to their kick-off discussion.

The strength of multi-family housing played a part in this chat. The fact that Zell pronounced multi-family as the strongest segment of the commercial real estate business was no surprise. But his thoughts on the future of single-family housing and homeownership were.

For decades, the federal government pushed homeownership. The thought went like this: Homeowners are more likely to invest in their neighborhoods than are renters. This means that homeownership is good for the country.

Of course, this doesn’t hold when mortgage lenders pass out mortgage money to borrowers who can’t afford to pay it back. All that does is lead to the surge in foreclosures that is now swamping the economy and helping to prevent a more robust recovery.

During his discussion with Cafaro, Zell said that the multi-family market today is benefitting from the single-family market’s woes.

“The thought was that as soon as you were able to, you should buy a house,” Zell said. “Everyone said that homes always go up in value. You should then buy as big a home as you can to take advantage of this. Of course, that turned out to be …” (I’ll let you fill in the rest of that sentence. But here’s a hint: Zell’s word starts with a “bull” and ends with a “t.”)

The single-family market will recover, of course. And multi-family will eventually lose some of its appeal. But Zell wondered during this week’s forecast conference just how long it will take before consumers regain that warm feeling that the American Dream of homeownership once gave them.

“The single-family market will get better. We will absorb the oversupply,” Zell said. “But there will be a long-term bitter taste left by what has happened with single-family housing. In our lifetime, we might not see housing return to its former hallowed place.”

If this is the case? Expect multi-family to remain the top-performing commercial segment for a long time.

The Village at Mission Farms -- a 212-unit multi-family project for the suburb of Leawood -- is just one project set to come online in the Kansas City area in 2012.

Block’s researchers said that the end of 2011 brought more than a few glimmers of hope that a slow but steady recovery is in store for Kansas City in 2012. Unfortunately, this recovery is best described as shaky. After all, there’s an economic crisis going on in Europe and unending political infighting in Washington. Both could derail improvements in 2012.

The hope, though, lies largely in the return of jobs to Kansas City, according to the Block Real Estate Services’ report. The Kansas City metropolitan area lost more than 100,000 jobs from 2001 to 2011. But the metro area is expected to add 19,100 jobs in 2012 and, in even better news, 36,700 in 2013.

Again, though, this good news comes with a healthy dose of reality. According to the Block report, even with this job growth, the Kansas City metropolitan area won’t return to its pre-recession employment level until the end of 2014. For those keeping track, that’s more than six long years after the country’s Great Recession officially began.

Still, the Block report does provide plenty of reasons for optimism. Like most Midwest markets, Kansas City is seeing activity increase in most commercial real estate sectors. Multi-family continues to outshine other sectors, but the rest of the commercial industry is slowly rebounding, too.

As the major commercial real estate players in markets across the Midwest release their own 2012 predictions, expect them to be similar to the ones made by Block Real Estate Services. The main point is this: Yes, the commercial real estate industry is recovering. But the recovery is a slow one.

It’s not the good news that we all want, but it is good news, nonetheless.

JMB Financial Advisors arranged the debt to refinance a Tax Increment Finance Bond on a 72-unit high-end condominium project located inCovington, Ken.

The income stream derived from the real estate taxes paid by the condominium owners secured the bank financing. JMB sourced the debt from a suburban Chicago-based bank on behalf of the bond owner, who was not disclosed.

“Most conventional lenders would not have the ability to get a transaction like this done. We worked extensively to get the bank comfortable with the security of its collateral,” said John Pascal of JMB Financial Advisors, who secured the financing for the transaction. “We enjoy providing capital solutions to complicated transactions such as this one.”

HFF worked on behalf of a partnership between Hearthview Residential and its institutional partner to secure the seven-year, fixed-rate loan through Freddie Mac’s CME Program.  The securitized loan will be serviced by HFF through its Freddie Mac Program Plus® Seller/Servicer program.  Loan proceeds are retiring the construction loan on the property.

Prairie Lakes is situated on 44 acres in the northern Indianapolis suburb of Noblesville.  Completed in 2010, the property has one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 957 square feet each.  Community amenities include a saltwater swimming pool, grilling cabana and clubhouse with business center, fitness center, gaming lounge and meditation studio.  At closing, Prairie Lakes was 97-percent occupied.

The HFF team representing Hearthview Residential and its institutional partner was led by senior managing director Dave Keller and senior real estate analyst Ken Martin.

Hearthview Residential has been developing, building and managing commercial real estate and multi-housing properties since 2000.  The principals of Hearthview have been responsible for the development and/or financing of more than $2 billion of real estate throughout the eastern half of the United States during their careers and have been responsible for the development and construction of several thousand for-sale and rental residential units across multiple market areas.

By all accounts, the commercial real estate markets across the Midwest should be healthier this year.

The latest report confirming this comes from Cassidy Turley, which earlier this month hosted its State of Real Estate event at Clowes Memorial Hall on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.

Jeffrey Henry, regional managing principal with Cassidy Turley, said that Indiana’s commercial real estate market seems poised for a solid 2012.

“Although the many national and international challenges of the past year hampered growth, Indiana’s commercial property markets proved to be remarkably resilient as every segment of commercial real estate demonstrated strengthening fundamentals,” Henry said of the market’s performance last year.

Cassidy Turley research director Jason Tolliver brought good news, too.

“Commercial real estate is improving,” Tollivers said. “The economy has made the difficult transition to a private-sector-led recovery, hiring is up in the demand drivers of commercial real estate, the manufacturing sector is expanding and retail sales have recovered from their bottom.”

Segments experiencing positive growth trends over consecutive quarters were multi-family (10 quarters), industrial (five quarters), and office (three quarters).  Even the retail segment is now trending positive. Vacancy rates are decreasing in many of these markets, rent rates are stabilizing and some new development is occurring in multi-family .

To access the entire Cassidy Turley Indianapolis, Indiana 2012 Annual Market Report visit www.cassidyturleyreport.com.

HFF, along with Pankhurst Properties, marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Northwestern Mutual.  An affiliate of The Habitat Company purchased Lake Village of Ann Arbor for $41.475 million on a free and clear basis.

Lake Village of Ann Arbor is located adjacent to the University of Michigan soccer complex and a short drive from the main campus in Ann Arbor.  The 29.2-acre site has 18 three-story buildings built in two phases in 1997 and 2002.  Units are available in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans averaging 1,220 square feet each.  Community amenities at the fully leased property include a clubhouse, health club and tanning bed, heated pool with hot tub, tennis court and business center.

The HFF investment sales team was led by managing director Marty O’Connell, executive managing director Matthew Lawton and managing director Sean Fogarty.

“Lake Village of Ann Arbor’s proximity to the University of Michigan ensures consistent demand from graduate students, faculty and employees of the university, which is the largest employer in Ann Arbor,” said O’Connell.