Commercial Finance and Lending
The Tale of Washington Mutual: Suprised?
December 27, 2008
Tweet “It was the Wild West,” said Steven M. Knobel, a founder of an appraisal company, Mitchell, Maxwell & Jackson, that did business with WaMu until 2007. “If you were alive, they would give you a loan. Actually, I think if you were dead, they would still give you a loan.” The NYT is featuring [...]
Read More >>Now Commercial Real Estate Developers Want A Bailout
December 22, 2008
Tweet According to an article in the WSJ this morning, developers are going to Capitol Hill with hat in hand looking for a bailout. Being in the CRE industry, I have to say this is getting out of hand. The blowup of the housing market and the ripple effect have caused the government to step [...]
Read More >>Treasury Yields Create Defeasance and Yield Maintenance Nightmare
December 11, 2008
Tweet Treasury yields have plummeted to near nothing, and in some cases they have even gone negative for the first time as investors are searching frantically for the financial equivalent of a panic room. To commercial real estate owners who are looking to sell, or refinance, this has created yet another problem, the issue of maintaining [...]
Read More >>Equities, Real Estate, and Deflation
December 10, 2008
Tweet Over the past decade, real estate has become less and less real and has become more and more a piece of paper. MBS, CDS, venture capital, etc. have all helped to take real estate into the heart of Wall Street. By becoming just another asset class, valuations of real estate need to compete more [...]
Read More >>Significant Rate Cuts Across Europe; Oil Below $65; LIBOR Plunges to 4-Year Low
November 6, 2008
Tweet European Central Banks made deep cuts in interest rates today. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut rates by 50 basis points to 3.25%. The Bank of England made its biggest cut in 27 years, cutting its key interest rate by 150 basis points to 3.00%. Other banks which also lowered rates were the Swiss [...]
Read More >>Notes From the ProLogis Earnings Call
October 26, 2008
Tweet ProLogis (PLD: 36.96 -3.60%) released its earnings numbers and its FFO numbers were down significantly, prompting a selloff in its stock as well as San Francisco-based AMB’s (AMB: 0.00 N/A). Digging into their earnings call were a few notable excerpts. On development: Beginning in September, we have done nothing but build to suit starts, [...]
Read More >>Broadway Partners Runs Into Trouble – San Francisco Holdings On The Table?
October 11, 2008
Tweet During 2006 and 2007, New York’s Broadway partners went on a tear, acquiring billions of dollars worth of real estate, with Lehman Partners providing the financing for a good chunk of it. That put Broadway Partners on the map as the third largest acquirer of New York City office buildings after Macklowe and Tishman [...]
Read More >>General Growth on the Chopping Block?
October 4, 2008
Tweet There has been significant amount of talk this past week that General Growth Properties (GGP), the giant shopping mall REIT, could be on the chopping block. GGP’s local San Francisco Bay Area assets include the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, NewPark Mall in Newark, and Eastridge Mall in San Jose. The REIT also owns [...]
Read More >>SF Chronicle Article Today On San Francisco Office Space Market
October 3, 2008
Tweet The SF Chronicle today is featuring an article discussing the trouble San Francisco office market is facing as a result of all that is going on in the equity and debt markets. There are two key takeaways in this article. The first is that we could see a 900 basis point increase in the office vacancy [...]
Read More >>Cupertino Square Trouble Continues as Gramercy Capital Pursues Foreclosure
August 21, 2008
Tweet Fighting between Cupertino Square Mall and Gramery Capital has culminated with a notice of default and sale being issued by the lender with a tentative auction date set for September 10th. The lender, Gramercy Warehouse Funding I LLC and United Commercial Bank, claim that Cupertino Square LLC is in default of its loan for the [...]
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