Empire Group of Companies has secured $229 million in construction financing to build Revelry, a 533-unit, two-building multifamily complex near Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Commercial Observer can first report. Mavik provided the debt, while WAY Capital's Malcolm Davies and Kyle McDonough arranged the transaction. The financing supports a high-rise residential project in a downtown corridor adjacent to Arizona State University, a location that Mavik's head of investments, Dan Cooperman, framed as an intersection of strong real estate fundamentals and a disciplined credit lens. The deal matters because it signals continued lender appetite for large-scale multifamily construction in select Sun Belt submarkets, even as broader capital markets remain selective.
The project, located at 965 East University Drive, will encompass two towers—a 15-story building and a 17-story building—and feature 16,300 square feet of ground-floor retail and more than 100,000 square feet of amenities. Planned amenities include a rooftop terrace, a resort-style pool, a fitness center, outdoor pickleball courts, a bowling alley, a dog wash, and coworking spaces. Upon completion, the asset will be among the tallest structures in the Tempe skyline. Mavik managing director Mike Fishbein cited the asset's proximity to Arizona State University and downtown Tempe, along with its unique high-rise design, as factors making the project a compelling new addition to the Tempe market.
The evidence for this transaction comes from a single Commercial Observer article published on September 28, 2026, which the dossier identifies as a tier-one secondary source read in full. The article includes a correction noting that an earlier version listed the loan price as $299 million, when it is $229 million. No additional sources in the dossier corroborate the financing amount, the unit count, the project specifications, or the quotes attributed to Cooperman, Fishbein, and Empire partner Randy Grudzinski. The dossier does not include loan terms such as interest rate, duration, loan-to-cost ratio, or recourse structure, and it does not provide a construction timeline, total project cost, or projected completion date.
The transaction carries several implications for the Tempe multifamily market and for construction lending more broadly. First, the scale of the loan—$229 million for 533 units—implies a per-unit financing amount of roughly $430,000, though the dossier does not state total project cost or equity contribution, so this figure should be treated as arithmetic rather than a disclosed metric. Second, the lender's stated conviction in the Tempe residential market suggests that institutional debt providers continue to view university-adjacent, amenity-rich urban infill locations as defensible even in a higher-rate environment. Third, the project's high-rise design and extensive amenity package indicate a bet on renter demand for elevated residential experiences within walkable urban cores, as Grudzinski described Empire's focus on livability, connectivity, and community.
Several limitations bound this analysis. The dossier contains only one full-text source, and no independent confirmation exists for the loan amount, the borrower's identity beyond Empire Group of Companies, or the arranger's role. The correction from $299 million to $229 million underscores the importance of verifying figures against final published versions. Missing information includes the loan's maturity, pricing, guaranty structure, and any pre-leasing or absorption assumptions. What to watch includes whether additional outlets confirm the financing, whether construction proceeds on schedule, and whether the Tempe submarket absorbs more than 500 new high-rise units without pressuring rents or occupancy. Until further evidence emerges, the transaction should be read as a single-source report of a significant but not independently verified construction financing.