S&P Falls Further Back in CMBS Ratings (01/20/2012)
S&P faces a long slog as it tries to rebuild its commercial MBS rating business, after falling to last place among agencies that rated the most common type of offerings last year.
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Pru Faces Maturing Loan on 11 Times Square (01/13/2012)
A Prudential Real Estate Investors partnership is preparing to start negotiations with its lending syndicate about a maturing $714 million construction loan on the overleveraged office building at 11 Times Square in Midtown Manhattan.
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Attendance Rise Seen for January Conference (12/02/2011)
Despite the second-half swoon that crushed profits and sapped the morale of commercial MBS pros, turnout at the CRE Finance Council’s 13th annual January conference is on track to slightly exceed the level at last winter’s event.
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Demand Soft for First Pooled Floater in 4 Years (10/07/2011)
Deutsche Bank struggled this week to drum up enough buyers for the first multi-borrower securitization backed by floating-rate loans in almost four years, amid a weakening market and concerns about the deal’s heavy concentration of hotel loans.
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Morgan-BofA Deal Kicks Off Issuance Wave (09/09/2011)
Morgan Stanley and Bank of America rolled out their latest commercial MBS offering this week in an uncertain market, where it may set pricing benchmarks for the year’s last flurry of issues.
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New Markit Index May Solve Hedging Woes (07/01/2011)
Markit, which runs the CMBX index of credit-default swaps tied to commercial MBS, is close to rolling out a new index that could address a big problem for securitization shops: the difficulty of hedging warehoused commercial mortgages.
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CMBS Spreads Blow Out in Softening Market (06/10/2011)
Amid weakening conditions in the financial markets, new-issue spreads blew out to the highest level of the year yesterday as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America priced a $1.2 billion multi-borrower offering.
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Fortress Taps Deutsche for Loan on Sheffield (04/08/2011)
Deutsche Bank has originated a $125 million floating-rate loan on the unsold units at the Sheffield, the ill-fated Manhattan condominium-conversion property that Fortress Investment bought out of foreclosure in 2009.
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Council Pushes ‘Reps & Warranties' Standard (01/21/2011)
The CRE Finance Council is poised to release a proposed standard for a key portion of securitization documents — the “representations and warranties” that lenders provide about the adequacy and accuracy of collateral-loan data.
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Regulator Repackages $3.8 Billion of CMBS (11/05/2010)
The federal regulator of credit unions this week resecuritized $3.8 billion of high-grade commercial MBS that it inherited from two failed institutions - the first and only such transaction it expects to conduct.
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$400 Million of Sour Hotel Loans on Block (09/17/2010)
LNR Partners and two other special servicers are jointly shopping more than $400 million of nonperforming hotel mortgages - the largest offering of distressed loans on a single property type since the market collapse.
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Eurohypo Group Backs Douglas Emmett Deal (07/23/2010)
Douglas Emmett Inc. has lined up a commitment from a Eurohypo syndicate for a $400 million floating-rate loan backed partly by a large Hawaiian office complex that it acquired last month.
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TIAA May Refi Securitized Loan on GGP Mall (06/18/2010)
TIAA-CREF, which holds as much as $89 million of subordinate debt on a suburban Seattle mall owned by a General Growth Properties partnership, is thinking about refinancing the property's $196.9 million securitized mortgage to protect its investment.
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Lenders Chase Big Loan on NY Office Tower (05/21/2010)
A partnership between insurer AXA Equitable and J.P. Morgan Investment Management is seeking a loan of up to $375 million on the office building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan.
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Spring Hill Seeking to Expand Broker Unit (02/26/2010)
Spring Hill Capital, which received its broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Wednesday, plans to hire up to 10 structured-finance specialists by yearend.
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Rate of Loans in Special Servicing Nears 9% (12/04/2009)
The percentage of commercial MBS loans in special servicing climbed sharply to almost 9% last month, fueled largely by the transfer of the $3 billion loan on the Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan.
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House Bill Seen Choking Off CMBS Revival (11/06/2009)
A sweeping proposal by U.S. lawmakers to overhaul the regulatory framework for financial institutions could be the kiss of death for a revival of the commercial MBS market, market pros are warning.
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BofA Eyes TALF, Mezz Financing for Fortress (10/30/2009)
Bank of America is seeking to arrange $650 million of financing on a portfolio controlled by Fortress Investment, part of which could be raised via a securitization eligible for the Federal Reserve's TALF program.
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AREA, CIBC Teaming Up on Mortgage Fund (10/02/2009)
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CORRECTION: An Oct. 2 article, "AREA, CIBC Teaming Up on Mortgage Fund," misstated Richard Mack's title at AREA Property Partners. He is North America chief executive, not the firm's chairman.
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First New-Issue TALF Deal Set for October (09/11/2009)
Developers Diversified Realty is on track to unveil the first commercial MBS transaction under the TALF program in mid-October, but two other potential issuers - Simon Property and Westfield - have dropped out of the picture.
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Barclays Extends $2 Billion Crescent Loan (08/14/2009)
Barclays has granted a three-month extension on a $2 billion floating-rate loan that helped finance Morgan Stanley's ill-fated takeover of Crescent Real Estate Equities at the top of the market.
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Substitute Lenders Sought for Xanadu Project (07/31/2009)
After several lenders balked at fulfilling commitments, a Colony Capital partnership is seeking up to $500 million of replacement funding to complete a giant entertainment and retail complex next to the Meadowlands sports complex in New Jersey.
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High TALF Approval Rate Bolsters Market (07/24/2009)
The Federal Reserve's decision to approve applications for TALF loans on legacy bonds from 35 of 36 commercial MBS deals buoyed the market this week, undoing some of the upheaval caused by a shocking about-face by S&P.
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Vornado, Macerich, Inland Mull TALF Deals (06/26/2009)
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CORRECTION: A June 26 article, "Vornado, Macerich, Inland Mull TALF Deals," cited talk in the market that Alexandria Real Estate Equities explored a TALF-eligible securitization, but discovered that the Federal Reserve was uncomfortable with the REIT's property niche: bio-medical research space. However, Alexandria subsequently said that it wasn't rebuffed by the Fed and that after making an initial inquiry it decided not to pursue a TALF deal because it determined it could obtain more attractive mortgage financing from insurance companies.
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S&P Rating Plan Sparks Industry Firestorm (05/29/2009)
S&P this week asked the industry to comment on proposed changes to its rating methodology that would result in sweeping downgrades of super-senior, triple-A commercial MBS. The agency may want to brace itself for the response.
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TALF Spurs Deutsche to Start Loan Program (05/15/2009)
Prompted by the new government program that will finance buyers of commercial MBS, Deutsche Bank has rolled out a program that aims to originate fixed-rate loans of up to $200 million for securitization.
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Banks, Borrowers Start Mulling TALF Deals (05/08/2009)
A handful of lenders and REITs have started exploring the possibility of using the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to foster new commercial MBS transactions, but no one expects a rush of deals to result.
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Simon Pullout From Mall Draws Ire of ORIX (05/01/2009)
Special servicer ORIX Capital Markets said that Simon Property's decision to walk away from an aging Florida mall should cause investors to be wary about the willingness of even the biggest institutional sponsors to stand behind properties that run into trouble.
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HSBC Mulls Way to Rescue Big Condo Loan (04/17/2009)
An HSBC syndicate is weighing an idea that could stave off the foreclosure of a high-profile Miami condominium complex and minimize losses on the $502 million loan that funded its construction.
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Treasury Plan Seen Spurring CMBS Sales (04/03/2009)
Veteran commercial MBS investors think there's a reasonable chance that the U.S. Treasury Department's new toxic-assets program will drive up prices enough to encourage institutions to unload their holdings of super-senior CMBS.
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Geithner Plan Raises Hopes of CMBS Pros (03/27/2009)
The U.S. Treasury Department's proposal for spurring the trading of toxic assets touched off a huge rally in the commercial MBS market this week, leading some players to conclude that the tide might have turned.
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Mezzanine Lender Snags Riverton Workout (02/27/2009)
The investor holding an apparently worthless $25 million mezzanine loan on the Riverton apartment complex in Manhattan is angling for a payoff in return for allowing a workout to proceed.
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Hilton Debt Clogs Lenders' Balance Sheets (02/20/2009)
Blackstone Group's $26.2 billion takeover of Hilton Hotels, the last big real estate transaction before the market downturn began in late-2007, has left seven banks - and the Federal Reserve - holding massive chunks of debt that they can't sell without ta
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Loan Extensions Add Wrinkles to Market (01/23/2009)
Special servicers are increasingly extending the terms of maturing commercial MBS loans that can't be refinanced, a move that is pitting senior bondholders against B-piece players and is complicating the efforts of fledgling finance shops to get off the g
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Deutsche Pushes for New Approach to Crisis (12/12/2008)
With no end in sight to the credit freeze, Deutsche Bank has detailed a senior executive to Washington to approach government officials about ways to help the crippled structured-finance markets.
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LoanCore Seeks Equity for Origination Fund (12/05/2008)
LoanCore Capital, which raised $500 million of equity from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund this summer to buy distressed debt, is now seeking to line up more than $3 billion for a commingled fund that will originate loans.
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Few Big CMBS Loans Set to Mature in 2009 (11/14/2008)
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CORRECTION: A Nov. 14 table of large CMBS mortgages scheduled to mature next year incorrectly included two loans: a $254 million mortgage to Americold on an industrial portfolio and a $77.2 million loan to Ross Partrich of R
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Lehman, Credit Suisse Top Writedown Tally (11/07/2008)
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CORRECTION: The second paragraph of a Nov. 7 article, "Lehman, Credit Suisse Top Writedown Tally," incorrectly attributed Credit Suisse's $2.6 billion commercial real estate writedown over the past year to J.P. Morgan. The h
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Leverage Cut on Vornado Project in Boston (10/24/2008)
After significantly reducing the amount of leverage originally planned, Bank of Ireland and Bank of America are close to wrapping up a $360 million syndicated loan for a mixed-use tower that a Vornado Realty partnership is building in Boston.
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