Land Acquisition and Pre-Development Loan for a condo development site in Manhattan. The sponsor/borrower was a successful off-shore real estate company starting their second US project. The borrower’s European bank pulled out of US lending three weeks before the borrower’s time-of-the-essence deadline.
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Refinancing/Partial Cash-Out of an in-process land assemblage for a condo development site in Manhattan. The loan provided refinancing and meaningful cash-out of a five-parcel land assemblage of which three parcels were owned and two parcels were under purchase contracts – with loan proceeds advanced as parcels were acquired. The loan was personally guaranteed by the developers and corporately guaranteed by the hedge fund sponsor.
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Financing/Cash-Out of a hotel owned free and clear of debt by the borrower. The borrower was purchasing another property with a time-of-the-essence contract and a substantial deposit at risk. Since the hotel lacked a Certificate of Occupancy for an expansion floor, the borrower’s bank walked from the transaction 10 days prior to a time-of-the-essence deadline on the acquisition. The loan was closed in 12 days.
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Acquisition Loan for a hotel development site and additional air rights for future construction of a 200+room hotel. The borrower/sponsor was modest-size regional investment-development group and a seasoned offshore real estate fund. Their intent is either to partner with a major hotel operator-development group &/or raise additional equity in putting together the construction financing. In addition to the complication of the lack of a hotel flag and the acquisition of the air rights, the site was a former gas station.
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Pre-Development/Cash-Out Loan secured by a condo development site in Las Vegas and two mobile home parks in Florida. The borrower needed funds quickly to move forward on the development in Las Vegas and the original loan was closed into our bridge loan program. A year later, we refinanced the three properties with another lender for a substantially larger amount. Due to a last minute legal issue in Florida, the entire loan had to be restructured in the four days before a closing deadline driven by the need to fund a Nevada required development fee.
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Acquisition Loan for a cash-flowing hotel property complicated by a Certificate of Occupancy issue due to failure to conform to all fire standards and by issues in the borrower’s history.
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Acquisition Loan for a failed golf-course residential development. The borrower had the opportunity to purchase the development including additional senior housing sites at a substantial discount but had to close within three weeks. The transaction was structured as an acquisition loan cross-collateralized with the borrower’s equity in other residential developments that he had in process.
Medical Office Building – My client held a land position and leasehold mortgage on a fully-occupied medical office building in a major urban location. The owner began construction of a new fully-pre-leased medical office building and structured parking garage without obtaining permission for the garage to “trespass” on my client’s land. By carefully following proper legal procedures, I blocked the owner from obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy for the “trespassing” garage which blocked occupancy in the new medical office building. In return for dropping the “trespass” charge, the owner gave my client a 50% equity interest in the new building and parking garage.
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Office Park – I negotiated the acquisition of a portion of a suburban office park on behalf of a client. The seller was a major merchant builder who typically sold his properties upon completion but had held this one for over a year. Upon closing, I retained a professional management company and instructed them to collect the past-due expense reimbursements from the tenants thereby substantially increasing the cash flow and value of the property. Nine months later the seller tried to form a REIT and was advised that he needed control of the entire park, so I sold the buildings back to him at the now substantially higher value.
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Foreclosed Office Building – I represented an offshore investor in the acquisition of a suburban office building that had been foreclosed on by a bank. The building was anchored by a major name tenant and was suffering from the perception of being a problem since it was in foreclosure. A year later, the owner rejected a purchase offer 50% higher than the original price.
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Restricted Investing – I was involved in some of the earliest Islamic investing in the US including structuring debt and equity real estate investments that conformed with the fatwa requirements of the specific investor (different investors had different standards and flexibility). On the other hand I also arranged a land loan for a Hasidic Talmudic school which had to conform to the religious requirements relevant to a loan between a Jewish lender and borrower.
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Niche Lending – Underlying co-op mortgages are peculiar to New York City, while managing a portfolio lender, I saw an opportunity to step into a niche market when the traditional lenders were at capacity. By moving quickly and offering a program focused on ease and certainty and establishing a close working relationship with the higher-end management companies, we were able to lock in the high-end, low LTV, low-price-sensitive market segment.