Walker & Dunlop Launches Commercial Property Funding Business at MBA Orlando Conference
By Damian Ghigliotty February 3, 2014 4:56 pm
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Earlier this evening Walker & Dunlop unveiled the launch of Walker & Dunlop Commercial Property Funding, LLC, the company’s new specialty finance joint venture with Fortress Investment Group, which it first announced in November 2013.
“This is a big day for us,” Tim Koltermann, the division’s newly appointed CEO, told a room of attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s 2014 CREF/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo in Orlando, Fla. “As the company has grown, the need for the company to change has come. We’re going to be aggressively expanding to meet the needs of borrowers throughout the country.”
Mr. Koltermann was joined by CPF Senior Vice President Brian Casey and Head of Production Sandor Biderman.
Their production goals include $1.25 billion in CMBS lending in 2014 and $1.5 billion in 2015. CPF will offer 5-year, 7-year and 10-year loans, ranging from $5 million to $30 million for all property types.
The new business is going to have offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, among other major cities, Mr. Koltermann noted.
Following the division’s official launch, CPF is gearing up to make several key hires, including a head of origination and staff originators, a head of underwriting and staff underwriters and a head of legal. Next month, CPF will begin pinpointing its regional locations and start closing loans. The new division is due to begin its securitization program in April and May 2014.
Below are some of the key statements that Mr. Koltermann made during Walker & Dunlop’s presentation on Monday evening.
3:56: We’re not just multifamily. I’m going to have to say that 100 times over the upcoming year.
3:54: We are going to give unprecedented amounts of responsibility to our origination staff.
3:52: Our full staff is shortly on the come. We have enlisted a third-party underwriter to provide pre-screening of all CMBS eligible origination.
3:50: We’re going to try to securitize every six to eight weeks. That means we’re going to be in the market all the time. We can’t afford not to feed the engine.
3:47: CPF is going to be one-stop shop for anything from a fixed-rate GSE transaction to a HUD transaction to a healthcare deal to a construction loan.
3:45: Our mission is to be the premier commercial real estate finance company in the United States.
3:43: Why are we doing this? Why am I here running the business? There is a tremendous opportunity. The opportunity over the next few years is $840 billion of loans that are maturing. As Moody’s recently noted, $140 billion to $160 billion is not financeable in a fixed-rate form.
