Optima Real Estate has swapped its construction financing for a $60 million permanent loan on Optima Verdana in downtown Wilmette, shifting the project from short-term build money to longer-term debt. The six-story, 100-unit building, which opened in 2023, leased up fast enough for the developer to pivot to a planned second building beside the shared plaza. Lenders and brokers involved in the deal read it as a fresh vote of confidence in suburban, transit-adjacent rentals as a place where capital still wants to land.
How the loan was arranged
The refinancing was arranged by Walker & Dunlop and placed with Freddie Mac, as reported by The Real Deal. According to public records cited in that coverage, the $60 million mortgage takes out an approximately $58 million construction loan from 2021. The bankers named in the announcement included Dave Hendrickson and Pat Modig, along with others on the capital markets team.
What Optima Verdana includes
Village planning records show Optima Verdana at 1210 Central Avenue, with roughly 100 apartments stacked above about 5,900 square feet of street-level retail across from Wilmette’s Metra station. The building opened to residents in 2023 and was marketed with high-end finishes and rooftop amenities. Those municipal documents also spell out how the project fits into the village’s downtown plan, including its role in parking and circulation calculations.
Phase two is next door
Optima has signoff to proceed with a second phase, now branded Optima Lumina, immediately north of Verdana, a proposed 128-unit residential building, according to the company’s announcement. "The success of Optima Verdana has demonstrated the high demand for luxury new-construction multifamily housing on the North Shore," David Hovey Jr. said in that release. Optima says Verdana and Lumina will be tied together by a public plaza and will bring additional street-level retail opportunities to the block.
North Shore market and lending climate
The refinancing lands at a moment when suburban multifamily activity has picked up, even as new construction lending runs into headwinds tied to unpredictable Cook County property tax assessments, The Real Deal reports. Industry coverage earlier this year also pointed to a wave of suburban trades and strong investor appetite for stabilized rental assets, a backdrop that helps explain lender interest in a Freddie Mac product on a newly stabilized property.
Retail at Verdana has been marketed to neighborhood-oriented tenants, and Optima has already announced operators for portions of the ground-floor space. On the balance sheet, the refinance turns a fresh development into a longer-term hold for the Glencoe-based firm. For Wilmette residents watching downtown evolve around the Metra stop, the deal is one more sign that the village’s transit-oriented redevelopment is still pulling in institutional capital as Optima lines up construction of the Lumina phase next door.
