Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘Llenrock’

Check us out in the following recent publications:

- The Small Business section of today’s Wall Street Journal in an article about Pop-Up Shops.

- GlobeSt.com’s monthly Philly 411 article which highlights a well known Philadelphia development, and the various risks associated with different members of the capital stack in the deal.

- The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story about Temple University’s student housing projects, which features a deal done by Llenrock.

World Cup fever has struck here at Llenrock.  With all this talk of England vs. USA, another great rivalry that has surfaced this week may be about to boil over, under the radar: is the other commercial real estate shoe going to fall off or not? There were two opposing views offered up this week by Jones Lang LaSalle’s (NYSE: JLL) James Koster, and Venable’s Gregory Cross. Let’s examine who had the upper foot…I mean hand. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of days ago the top trending topic on Twitter was “#4wordsbeforedeath” meaning if you had 4 words to say before you died, what would they be? (for those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter, find us @llenrockgroup) Llenrock’s 4 words were “buy low, sell high.” Someone who truly lives by this common phrase is Barry Sternlicht, the “King of Hotels.” Mr. Sternlicht capitalized on the back end of the Savings and Loan Crisis by amassing capital and purchasing properties the government was auctioning off. It is also said that the real estate market is cyclical, and Mr. Sternlicht is counting on this principle as he has, once again, begun to buy up real estate. Read the rest of this entry »

Week of April 18-24

- Real estate companies continue to tap the equity markets to raise cash through secondary offerings or IPOs.

- The Federal Reserve paid $47.4 billion to the Treasury Department in 2009, the largest amount on record, from gains on investments made to bolster the shaky housing market.

- CNBC reports that surveys show wealthy Americans are less concerned about the economy… seriously they actually did a story on this.

- A Llenrock survey shows that people with money are more likely to buy things than people without money.

- CNBC reports that it will be reporting on Llenrock surveys going forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Leo Addimando
Managing Partner & Founder
806 Capital, LLC

Leo Addimando is the Managing Partner and founder of 806 Capital, LLC, and has over 12 years of entrepreneurial and professional experience across multiple industries. Since founding of 806 in 2003, Leo has been focused on real estate investment, development and management. Prior to pursuing a full-time career in real estate, Leo was an early employee of Orbitz.com, serving the company for three years in numerous business and corporate development capacities. Leo’s largest accomplishment while at Orbitz was spearheading the development and implementation of a hotel platform and business that served as one of the key profitability drivers that allowed Orbitz to complete a successful IPO. Before working at Orbitz, Leo worked as an Associate for the Boston Consulting Group and also helped to found and grow a digital media company named Signcast. Leo attended the University of Michigan and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest distinction, earning a B.A in both Economics and Political Science. Subsequently, Leo attended the Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. Leo is a native of, and is based in Philadelphia, PA where he lives in Center City with his wife and son.

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 »

A couple of months after I quit my job at JPM to join Llenrock, I had dinner with my former trading colleagues.  True to form, all we really talked about was trading.  And that, of course, led to talk about specific trades.  It’s the trading analogue to fishing stories about ‘the one that got away’.

In my book, at the time of my departure, was a losing trade.  i.e. I had already lost money on a trade, but had not yet cut my losses in the belief that the market would move my way.  In response to some teasing about the ‘bad trade’ I pointed out that, in fact, the traded ended up moving my way after I left.  I was basically saying, “Hey, I’m not such a dummy after-all.  While I lost money initially, the trade turned and ended up actually making money.”

The response to me: “It’s a mark to market business.” Read the rest of this entry »

Lawrence Bizjak is a Managing Director and co-head of real estate at Garrison Investment Group, where he oversees a team responsible for the origination, acquisition and execution of real estate investments at all levels of the capital structure. Garrison’s is an active originator and a buyer of performing, sub-performing and non-performing mortgages, B-notes and mezzanine debt. The firm invests nationwide in all property types.

During his 20 year career, Mr. Bizjak has held positions at Gramercy Capital Corp. (NYSE:GKK), Goldman Sachs & Co, and E&Y Kenneth Leventhal. Mr. Bizjak graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Urban Design and is a CFA charterholder.

Garrison Investment Group makes credit and asset-based investments with attractive risk adjusted returns. Their experienced team of 35 professionals enables their investment group to source and execute transactions across corporate, real estate, and financial assets. Garrison  Investment Group invests predominantly in loans, securities and asset purchases, and are actively making investments in the current market environment.

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?

A: Garrison has three areas of focus – commercial real estate, corporate finance, and financial/consumer assets. We are able to invest in Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Starting out in brokerage, several friends told me that the mantra for rookies was “Fake it ’til you make it.” Now, it might be the owners, who those same brokers were calling on, who may have to heed the same advice. With occupancy continuing to decline and as sales prices become more and more depressed, most lenders are doing everything they can to amend and extend distressed loans. Their goal? To keep the keys in the pockets of the current owners.
Lenders across the nation are bolstering their asset management staff and taking a magnifying glass not only to a borrower’s financial statement, but also to the assets themselves. “One of the main concerns that the agencies have, and that we have, is deferred maintenance,” says David Durning, senior managing director for Newark, N.J.- based Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. “One of the most important factors in making a decision about showing some flexibility is whether the physical quality of the property is being maintained.”

In the past, many portfolio management techniques were asset-centric, but lenders are taking a much closer look at the borrower these days, and a property’s appearance can mirror a borrower’s financial health. Prudential looks for evidence that the property’s cash flow is being reinvested into the property, or whether that cash is being used to pay off other corporate bills—a possible sign that the borrower is in trouble.

For amendments and extensions, the company likes to see borrowers with some skin in the game. “Lenders like to know that borrowers have put additional capital at risk—repaving the roads, putting on new roofs, whatever,” Durning says. “Those are important signals to a lender of going forward.”

One of the largest balance-sheet lenders in the business, Chase Commercial Term Lending (formerly Washington Mutual), is also trying to get in front of the issue by expanding its asset management capabilities. “We’re reaching out more than people are reaching out to us,” says Al Brooks, president of New York-based Chase Commercial Term Lending.

Owners who are keeping the property up—through maintenance, landscaping, and graffiti removal—are at the top of the list for workouts. “During a difficult period is when people really earn their stripes as property owners,” Brooks says. The company is particularly sensitive to good owners in bad markets—cases where a specific market’s fundamentals are roiling a normally solid property, Brooks adds.

Keep your properties humming, continue to service your debt as best you can, and be upfront with your lender if you feel things are headed south. Honesty really is the best policy, lenders say.

Gary Brandeis
Managing Director
f|b Capital Partners

Mr. Brandeis has more than 19 years of commercial real estate experience. His career has included senior level and partnership positions with Lincoln Property Company, Sage Real Estate Group, and Meridian Realty Advisors. Mr. Brandeis’ experience and expertise includes development, finance, acquisitions, dispositions, asset management, and joint ventures. Mr. Brandeis was also the founder and managing partner of PropertyLogic LLC, an innovative real estate technology company that has won numerous awards including the Digital Innovation Award given by the Realcomm Conference. He started his career in public accounting with Price Waterhouse. He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Accounting from The Smeal College of Business of The Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Brandeis concentrates on generating and executing new business in the real estate sector.

f|b Capital Partners, L.P. is a Philadelphia-based private investment partnership co-founded by Michael C. Forman, a veteran investment professional with more than 20 years of experience in private equity and real estate.  f|b made its first investment in early 2003 and has since deployed over $500 million.

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 »