The mixed-use Plantation Walk project rising in western Broward County is moving along after obtaining a $121 million construction loan.

The money will finance development of two mid-rise apartment buildings with a combined 404 units and 134,326 square feet of retail.

Plantation Walk is being built on the 27-acre site of the demolished Fashion Mall northwest of Broward Boulevard and University Drive in Plantation. It's envisioned as a live-work-play community with homes, retail and offices.

The first part of the project comprising a 160,000-square-foot office building has been completed. Aetna Inc. leased 85,000 square feet in the tower and will move from Sunrise.

When completed, Plantation Walk will have 700 luxury apartments and 200,000 square feet of retail.

The developer is Encore Capital Management, a Boca Raton-based company co-founded by prolific South Florida developer Art Falcone, Tony Avila and Bill Powers.

Rescore Property Corp., an Encore investment vehicle, is developing the latest phase and obtained the construction loan.

When this phase is finished, Encore will take ownership of the retail portion, and Rescore will keep the apartments, according to Eric McGlynn, who secured the loan on behalf of Rescore. McGlynn is a managing director at Walker & Dunlop Inc. in Miami.

Rescore is a real estate investment trust created by Falcone, Avila and Powers that's developing eight multifamily communities: two in Broward County and others in California and Oregon. All of the projects are under The Rise brand.

The Broward efforts are The Rise Plantation Walk and The Rise Flagler Village, which is under construction in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

McGlynn and Kevin O'Grady, a former Walker & Dunlop managing director who recently left the company, secured the construction financing for all eight communities. The Rise Plantation Walk was the last one funded with the loan coming from Beverly Hills, California-based Pacific Western Bank.

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