News
BUCK STARTS HERE; THE DEAL SHEET
January 14, 2010
| Yesterday, our ears followed the jangle of serious coin to The Langham, where the Real Estate Lenders Association met to ponder the future for retail real estate. |
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| We snapped the panelists, Dartmouth Group's Scott Black, Kraft Group's Randy Goldstein, and WS Capital Partners' Gambhir Kaushek. Scott says retailers are downsizing, rents are halved, tenants have transformed from apparel to dollar stores, and everything is being re-traded, but (never have we been happier to see that conjunction), the worst is over. At Patriot Place, Randy is seeing ?more people coming through the doors.? As an investor, Gambhir is being ?very conservative? and expects an uneven three to five year recovery; he says he'll probably work with lenders and borrowers ?to preserve value.? |
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| Meet the lenders: Euro Hypo?s Kip Sanford, Allstate's David Craig, and Sovereign/Santander?s Peter Olivier. David says Allstate spent '09 paring down its mortgage portfolio from approximately $11B to about $8B. Now, they'll separate assets into borrowers with whom they want to continue to do business and those that need work-outs or restructuring. Peter said Sovereign is ?looking for opportunities? but ?construction is out of the mix, except for multifamily.? |
