Real Insight. Real Estate.

Posts Tagged ‘Bank of America’

This Valentine’s Day, Bill Maher has a message for all of us who are still in an abusive relationship…. with our Bank!

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Here’s a look at some bank chiefs’ most famous quotes pertaining to the last 18 months of economic turmoil.

“‘Tell Tim Geithner to get f**ked.’ When you come that close to really going out of business, call it near death, death experience, the end of the line, whatever you want to call it, your only focus is to make sure your company survives.”
– MorganStanley CEO John Mack didn’t censor himself during an Oct. 14, 2009 speech to student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Mack was recounting the tumultuous days in September when he worked on negotiating a deal with a Japanese bank to inject money into Morgan Stanley and save the bank from a Lehman-like fate. In the middle of Mack’s negotiations, Geithner called, demanding to speak with the Morgan Stanley chief immediately. Geithner’s apparently annoying insistence sparked Mack’s profane rebuke. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Week of December 19-25

- How far away is CRE from rebounding?  Could it only be a year away?

- The Fed has turned down only 3 of 58 legacy CMBS applications for TALF financing.

- How long could small banks suffer for their bad CRE bets?

- CRE in 2009: Where deleveraging is seen as the year’s biggest accomplishment.

- Despite the surge in REIT investment, could there still be opportunity?
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The 10 Biggest Bailout Recipients -

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It turns out not every Canadian is a dim-witted Dudley Do-Right riding backwards on his horse.  In fact, the Canadian’s have proved they know what they’re doing when it comes to running large, private banks.  In a time when the largest U.S. banks are suffering from rapid deterioration of market value, Canadian banks are actually improving their market cap without having to engage in dilutive capital raises.  There’s no doubt that RBC, TD, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, and CIBC (the 5 largest Canadian banks) have weathered the economic downturn far better than their U.S. counterparts.  In many instances Canadian markets move in step with U.S. markets, so what could be the reason for the relatively strong health of our banking neighbors to the north?

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Christopher LaBianca
President
RCG Longview

Christopher LaBianca joined the RCG Longview series of Real Estate Debt Funds in April of 2008 and serves as the President of their current high yield debt fund RCG Longview Debt Fund IV, L.P. His responsibilities include oversight of the origination, underwriting, closing, servicing and asset management of all fund investments.  Since the inception of RCG Longview Debt Fund Series in 1999, the managers, Peter Cohen and Michael Boxer (Ramius Capital Group, LLC),Jeffrey Feil and Jay Anderson (The Feil Organization), Morton Olshan (Mall Properties), and Jon Estreich (Estreich & Company), have originated more than $1.8 billion in real estate mezzanine debt and other related instruments through RCG Longview fund vehicles. The investment strategy of the funds is driven by the collective experience of the managers as owners and operators of real estate. RCG Longview thus differentiates itself from its competition by focusing on opportunities where its experience and operational capabilities add additional value beyond financial structuring.  During its ten years in business, RCG Longview has been active in practically every major US real estate market. It has made more than 350 investments secured by over $9 billion of real estate.

Prior to joining the Fund, Mr. LaBianca spent nearly eight years at Bank of America, most recently serving as a Managing Director and Co-Head of National Originations in the firm’s real Estate Capital Markets group. During his tenure as originations head, the firm consistently ranked among the top three most active contributors to CMBS issues, with total volume in the last four years exceeding $53 billion. Mr. LaBianca was responsible for developing and managing a nationwide network of fully staffed origination offices. Mr. LaBianca personally originated over $8 billion of loans for securitization while at the firm. Prior to Bank of America, Mr. LaBianca spent eight years at the former Chase Manhattan Bank, holding senior management positions in the Real Estate Finance and US Securities divisions.

Mr. LaBianca began his career as an Analyst with The Prudential before receiving his MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Whitman School at Syracuse University.  He is a member of the ICSC and is a past Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Real Estate Board of New York.  He is also a Trustee and the current Treasurer for the Roseland Education Foundation.

Q: As a company, tell me about the niche you have carved out for yourself and how you feel you are different from the competition. Why do you find this product type more appealing than alternative real estate asset classes? Read the rest of this entry »

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Here at the Llenrock Group, we are huge advocates of environmental sustainability. Our printers never have paper in them because we try to save trees. The punishment in our office for throwing recyclable items into the regular trash bin is a public flogging with a bamboo rod.  Sometimes I wonder if our founder should have just set up the Llenrock office in Singapore.

In the spirit of our tree-hugging mentality at Llenrock, we have compiled a list of “The 10 Greenest Buildings” in the world. Obviously, there’s no way to determine what “the greenest” building in the world is, but we thought each of these projects was pretty cool for their environmental sustainability.

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When you gain some weight, your doctor probably yells at you. When you don’t listen to his advice and continue your march towards obesity, he’ll likely recommend a stress test in order to ascertain the health of your heart. We’ve all seen this in the form of the shirtless fat guy running on a treadmill with anodes stuck all over his corpulence (as pictured above).

Similarly, banks have become obese (with bloated books of bad debt rather than donuts and ice cream) and have recently undergone a stress test of their own. Back at the end of February President Obama ordered the 19 biggest banks to undergo a stress test to see how they would fare if the economy was to worsen further.

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