Looking for financing for horizontal development

[Mike Feehley]

My business partner and I purchased 100 acres in Clover SC.  Just for reference, Clover sits right over the SC border, about 30 min to Charlotte and is highly desirable given the schools alone.  

We purchased the property for $1,300,000.  We financed the note for around $850,000, 2 business line of credits ($200,000 each) and we brought the remaining cash.  

The plan has/is been to develop a neighborhood of 46 homes.  The county allowed us to sell 8 of the lots, because they were on the main road (a paved country road).  We quickly sold through these lots at an average price of $120k.  With those funds we paid down the note to around $700k, we paid off the LOC's, obviously made payments on the note and LOC's, and paid engineering fees for the design of the community itself, which will house the 38 internal lots.

Today, we have county approval for the community, we expect average lots prices for the remaining lots to be around $125k+.  We went back to the bank to secure approx $1,200,000 for the horizontal piece, which includes culvert for creek crossing, clearing for roads, and roads themselves.  The bank has now advised us that given the current conditions of the economy, they are pulling back on any new lending.  While we won't need the money until Q1 2024, I need to work towards securing this financing.  I take calls about the lots daily and expect a quick sell of all lots.  We are fortunate that our local economy has remained strong and home sales have really only taken a hit because of the lack of inventory.

For full transparency, I am a successful RE agent of 20 years and my business partner is a very successful builder in the Clover and surrounding area.  

I realize that I could go to a hard money lender but I wanted to explore any other options our there.  If I have trouble finding a lender or individual that will offer financing for the horizontal, I thought about exploring the possibility of finding a lender that will provide higher LOC's for us, $500k each, and we could bring the rest to the table.  

Thank any of you that can offer suggestions or advise.

-Mike Feehley