Ownership Change at Commercial Mortgage Banker

Otéra Capital, a Montreal-based commercial real estate financing subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is purchasing the ownership interest held by Todd Schuster in the Needham, Mass.-based commercial real estate finance company CW Financial Services. Otéra will now control 81% of the firm. Mr. Schuster, who had been chief executive of CWFS, has resigned. Charles Spetka, president of CWFS units CWCapital Investments and CWCapital Asset Management, is replacing him. Michael Berman will assume the role of CEO of CWCapital, the company's Fannie Mae DUS, Freddie Mac and FHA lending entity. Mr. Berman has served as president of CWCapital since 1991 and will report to Mr. Spetka in this new role. In a statement, Mr. Schuster said since CDP invested in CWFS in 2002, annual loan production has grown from $600 million to a peak of nearly $3 billion and the servicing portfolio has grown from $3 billion to $10 billion. In addition, the company has launched an investment management business that currently has $11 billion of assets under management as well as a special servicing company that is the named servicer on $174 billion of underlying collateral.