Real Estate New Jersey - December 2008

Newswire

Covering Northern, Central and Southern New Jersey

NAI GLOBAL, BLUESTONE FORM NEW CAPITAL VENTURE

The challenging financial times are forcing more companies to find creative alternatives to get money, and two major players have hooked up in a new venture that hopes to get some dollars into the real estate pipeline. NAI Global, based in Princeton, has signed a deal with the Philadelphia-based investment banking firm Bluestone Real Estate Capital to work out what company officials term “creative financing solutions.”

“The turmoil in today’s capital markets has had a tremendous impact on lenders, who need help working through problems in their commercial real estate mortgage portfolios,” says Jeffrey M. Finn, president and CEO of NAI Global. “And property owners and investors are having trouble finding the financing they need for existing projects and new investments.

“NAI Bluestone Real Estate Capital will work with lenders, property owners and investors to arrange debt and equity financing for commercial real estate assets,” he says. “We will also work with banks and other financial institutions on asset recovery strategies for non-performing and underperforming real estate assets, including asset evalua-

tion, repositioning and the disposition of properties and loans.”

“We’re focused on providing solutions to lenders who are facing one of the most difficult periods in commercial real estate history,” says Bluestone chairman Matthew McManus, whose company does more than $1 billion of deals annually, drawing from a number of major institutional capital providers. “The market has become gridlocked with credit-starved property owners in need of financing and lenders overwhelmed by problems in their existing loan portfolios. We’re combining NAI Global’s local market expertise and global reach with our commercial real estate debt and equity financing capabilities.”

“Bluestone’s capital markets expertise dovetails nicely with our asset optimization practice and our accelerated marketing program,” Finn says.

“We’re creating a debt and equity financing, asset disposition, repositioning and loan sale practice

that we expect to be in high demand in today’s market.”

The venture will be based in Bluestone’s hometown of Philadelphia, and will work through NAI Global’s managed network, which adds up to some 325 offices in more than 50 countries.