Commercial real estate lending

Prospective buyers of the boarded-up East Hills Mall recently reached out to Bakersfield city officials with a new vision for demolishing and redeveloping the property into a village-like mixed-use center.

The second half of 2019 is a prudent time to examine the CRE market in the context of an inevitable slowdown, taking into account how the current landscape is impacting lending practices.

Blooma has developed a software product that combs databases to create property profiles for commercial real estate lenders. It can drastically cut origination costs and approval times and help banks identify safer loans, the company says.

Behind strong job markets, the shortage in housing supply and more millennials moving out, 2019 projects to be a record year for multifamily originations.

Robert Shapiro, the former chief executive officer of Woodbridge Group of Companies, pleaded guilty to running a $1.3 billion fraud that caused more than 7,000 investors to lose money, according to prosecutors.

There are opportunities to make loans for strip malls and regional distribution centers but executives need to put the right risk management in place.

It’s hard to time the next economic slowdown. But lenders, many with lingering memories of the financial crisis, are taking steps now to limit exposure in commercial real estate, construction and other loan segments.

Bankers are downplaying such concerns, but others say a sharp decline in values on rent-regulated buildings means landlords will have less cash flow to acquire new properties.

As budget questions loom over the most popular Small Business Administration loans, lenders have embraced the previously overshadowed 504 program after a key policy tweak.

New York's sweeping rewrite of rent stabilization laws could pose a credit risk to lenders that finance capital improvements to regulated apartment properties, according to a report Monday by Fitch Ratings.