Starwood, Trinitas borrow $100.3M from Affinius for student housing

Starwood Capital Group and Trinitas Ventures secured $100.3 million of construction financing for Atmosphere Pittsburgh, a 672-bed student housing project in the city's Oakland neighborhood.

Affinius Capital supplied the debt, Commercial Observer reported. Terms beyond the loan amount were not disclosed.

The building has to lease to students and stabilize before a takeout lender can refinance the construction debt, so the lease-up clock is the main risk for the next lender.

At $100.3 million across 672 beds, the loan works out to about $149,000 a bed.

The project at 217 Halket Street sits between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Plans call for a 12-story mixed-use building with 326 units, 34 of them affordable, and amenities including study rooms, a rooftop fitness center and a rooftop courtyard with a hot tub. The Cardinal Group, which manages roughly 108,000 student housing beds nationally, will oversee day-to-day operations.

Tyler Figley, a senior vice president at Affinius Capital, said in a statement that the site holds "a unique location within one of the country's most established university districts." Figley added, "The planned development creates a compelling opportunity to deliver new student housing in the Oakland market."

Construction is expected to finish in summer 2028, in time for the 2028-29 academic year.

Affinius reported $30.4 billion in regulatory assets, 298 employees and 121 accounts in an Aug. 24 Form ADV. Its recent lending has run larger than this deal: as Private Wealth Daily previously reported, the firm lent $226 million to refinance a Brooklyn multifamily tower in early November.

Starwood is also active as a lender: as Private Wealth Daily previously reported, it formed a land lending partnership with Trez in early November with a $1 billion target, starting with a $450 million portfolio of Trez-originated single-family land acquisition and development loans.