Saul Centers has secured a major loan to finance more than half of its $275M Ballston development.

Northwestern Mutual is providing a $157M loan to the Bethesda-based REIT to partially finance the construction of the 491-unit mixed-use building on the corner of Wilson Boulevard and North Glebe Road, the Washington Business Journal reports.

In April, the developer landed Target to anchor the project's retail with a 41,500 SF small-format store, its fourth in the region. The project has an additional 20K SF of retail, and Saul Centers told investors it has since leased another 7,800 SF.

The project is being built on the site of a former Mazda dealership, which was demolished earlier this year. Saul Centers expects to complete the development in 2020.

Saul Centers this month also unveiled its proposal for a 10-building development on a strip-mall retail site it owns on Rockville Pike, just north of the Twinbrook Metro station. The proposal, set to go in front of the Rockville Development Review Committee on Sept. 28, calls for up to 2.8M SF of residential, office and retail space.