Secondary Markets, Area Lenders Keep New Besen Group Hire Busy
By Carl Gaines July 16, 2012 10:32 am
reprintsNearly six months into his new position as executive managing director of the Special Assets Group at the Besen Group, where he also heads the firm’s new Red Bank, N.J. office, Jonathan Horn has been kept busy by assignments from New York area lenders. Also impacting business, he told The Mortgage Observer, has been an uptick in interest in secondary markets.
Mr. Horn, who was a founder of Helios Capital Advisors, joined the Besen Group in February.
“Things are going extremely well,” he said.” I’ve picked up numerous assignments, have successfully traded numerous assignments on behalf of community and regional banks and the activity has grown exponentially since I got here.”
The first assignment he closed was the disposition of a portfolio of mixed-use and multifamily assets scattered across the tristate area. “And that was, again, on behalf of a small New York community bank,” he said, adding that he couldn’t disclose the bank’s name due to confidentiality reasons. “The UPB was $2 million and it actually traded at the mid-70 percent range.”
Most recently, however, Mr. Horn closed on “a $1 million UPB, non-performing loan secured by a mixed-use asset in the Bronx.” Another recent deal was the trade of a portfolio of non-performing loans secured by four multifamily assets in Union City, New Jersey, illustrative of an increase in interest in the secondary markets.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of money that was raised still not yet deployed, so there is a lot of very aggressive money looking for small balance debt,” he said. “There’s still not a ton of product and there still is that disconnect between the bid-ask.”
The secondary markets that Mr. Horn will focus on in his position at the Besen Group will be located in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, he said. The Special Assets Group that he heads will consist of team members in multiple offices in the tristate area.
Michael Besen, CEO of the Besen Group, said that the firm was “pleased to have such an experienced industry leader at Besen heading this specialized segment of the market and to further expand our team.”
cgaines@observer.com
