Bakken Baledge
Groundbreaking on the upscale, 200-unit Promenade Point apartment complex at 4101 W. Huntington Place in Rogers is expected in June. Located on 8.4 acres owned by Hunt Ventures LLC, Promenade Point will be the first large-scale complex built in Rogers in seven years.
Promenade Point is financed under a federal designation known as a HUD 221 (d)(4). If a builder qualifies for the HUD, the program offers low fixed rates as well as assumable and non-recourse loans that can be financed over a 40-year period.
In a nutshell, HUD 221 (d)(4) is Cadillac financing, and that being the case, Whispers is not surprised that Hunt Ventures is involved.
But there are other names attached to the project — the Sterling Group of South Bend, Ind., and Les Baledge, who retired as Tyson Foods Inc. general counsel in 2003.
Baledge, a securities lawyer with Kutak Rock before joining Tyson in 2000, tells Whispers the apartment complex in Rogers is just one piece of his post-Tyson pie.
In partnership with the Sterling Group, Baledge is building apartment complexes in Alabama, Tennessee and in North Dakota, near the wild and wooly Bakken Oil Fields, where many workers live in “man camps.”
“We try to stay busy,” Baledge said.
Sounds like it.