A Trez Forman Capital Group loan is helping revive a residential project in Georgia, although this time it's coming back as homes for rent instead of for purchase.

Trez Forman issued a $21.9 million loan for the development of a 114-unit multifamily project in Georgia's Dawson County, about 50 miles from Atlanta.

The development, which will rise along Riley Place Drive north of Dawson Forest Road East, will be rental townhouses.

“It gives the person, the family more space and a feeling and an identity like they are living in a single-family neighborhood but it's for rent,” said Trez Forman president and CEO Brett Forman, based in Boynton Beach.

Trez Forman on Oct. 26 closed the loan to developer Paul Lange, the company's second construction loan issued to Lange for a Georgia project. On March 5, it closed on $13.5 million in financing for a 115-unit townhouse-style community in Hiram.

This speaks not only to the relationship Trez Forman and Lange have established and the lender's belief in Lange's projects, but also to Trez Forman's confidence in the Southeast U.S. market, including in Atlanta-area residential projects.

“We are bullish on the Southeast to begin with. We are very bullish on the Atlanta market, and we still believe there is a lot of need for multifamily,” Forman said.

The Dawson County development started in 2005 as a townhouse development with 169 homes. A total of 55 were built before the project was abandoned, and other lots remained empty.

“It's going to take some additional work to get them ready to actually be built on,” Forman said. “A lot of the infrastructure is there, but some of it will have to be replaced.”

The previous developer sold the townhouses before the housing crash idled work, Forman said.

In the current market, a lot of the hype focuses on urban development and a live-work-play lifestyle where residents can live close to where they work, shop and dine. Yet Trez Forman has opted to lend to suburban projects, like the Dawson County and Hiram ones.

“There's a lot of, in my opinion, overbuilding going on in the urban cores, Atlanta included. But this being a suburban location, we think there is a demonstrated demand,” he said.

Dawson County has about 24,300 residents in 2017, according to U.S. census figures.

The project is set for completion in early 2020, and leasing will begin as buildings are finished.

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