Berger Commercial Realty Corp. Announces Promotions and New Hires

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Berger Commercial Realty Corp., a full service commercial real estate firm based in Fort Lauderdale and serving clients around the State of Florida, has announced the following two promotions and five new hires:

Promotions

Timothy Hackett (top left photo) has been promoted to Vice President of Property Management and will supervise and manage select client property portfolios. A resident of Fort Lauderdale, Hackett has 14 years of industry experience and previously was Senior Property Manager at Berger Commercial Realty Corp.

Marie Dunn (middle  right photo)  has been promoted to Property Controller. Previously, Dunn was Assistant Controller for Berger’s Fort Lauderdale office and accounting supervisor for its Pembroke Pines office. A resident of Davie, she has 15 years of experience in real estate finance. Dunn’s responsibilities include preparing financial statements for 15 properties on a monthly basis.

New Hires

Emilio Alvarez has been appointed Senior Property Manager and will manage specific client portfolios. Alvarez, formerly a property manager for Lincoln Property Company in Coral Gables, brings 15 years of experience to Berger Commercial Realty. Alvarez resides in Hollywood, Fla.

Joseph Hilton has been appointed Property Manager in Miami-Dade County for Berger Special Assets, the company division that serves as receiver, management company, leasing and sales agent for distressed commercial and multi-family properties on behalf of lenders. Hilton, who resides in Plantation, Fla., brings 10 years of experience to Berger Commercial Realty.

Rosie Rominger has been appointed Accounting Department Supervisor, responsible for providing monthly financials for a 30-property portfolio. Formerly with The Fitzgerald Group, Rominger, who is a resident of Plantation, brings 23 years of experience to Berger Commercial Realty.

Giselle Gordon has joined the company as a Property Manager, bringing 17 years of related experience to Berger Commercial Realty Corp. Gordon resides in Miami.

Jessica Lee has been named Receivership Controller, responsible for preparing financial reports for receiverships managed by the company. Lee has 10 years of experience, most recently with NAI Merin Hunter Codman in West Palm Beach, where she was Corporate Accounting Administrator. Lee is a resident of Pompano Beach.

Founded in 1998, Berger Commercial Realty Corp. is a full service commercial real estate firm. A local, independent and privately-owned firm, Berger can customize services and adapt to clients needs and the ever changing real estate market.

(Lloyd C. Berger, lower right photo), is president of Berger Commercial Realty Corp.)

Services include brokerage/tenant and buyer representation, property management, agency/project leasing, capital advisory/investment sales, construction/project management, and retail services. The company established a dedicated division, Berger Special Assets, to serve as receiver and enhance the value of distressed properties by providing expert management, leasing and sales representation on behalf of lenders and financial institutions.

For more information, visit http://www.bergercommercial.com/.

Contacts:
Jane Grant, (954) 776-1999 ext. 224, jgrant@piersongrant.com
Marielle Sologuren, Pierson Grant Public Relations, 6301 Northwest 5th Way Suite 2600, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, v. (954) 776-1999 ext. 226, f. (954) 776-0290, msologuren@piersongrant.com, http://piersongrant.com/

Morrison Commercial Real estate Completes 2 office Building Transactions Totaling 23,420 SF in Orlando

ORLANDO, FL-- Greg Morrison, CCIM, SIOR, Principal and Founder of Morrison Commercial Real Estate, announced the completion of two office building transactions totaling 23,420± square feet.

Damien Madsen (top right photo)  of Morrison Commercial Real Estate was successful in representing the buyer, New Missions, Inc. in closing the sale of the 11,000 square foot office building located at 2500 West Sand Lake Road in Orlando for $1,200,000.

In addition, Lisa Bailey (lower left photo)  and David Young of Morrison Commercial Real Estate represented the landlord, MVRL INVESTMENTS, L.P. in the negotiation of a 12,420 square-foot new lease with Fanueil, Inc. at 7800 Southland Boulevard, Orlando, Florida.

Founded by Greg Morrison, (bottom right photo) a 23-year veteran of the Central Florida commercial real estate market, Morrison Commercial Real Estate is a full-service brokerage firm specializing in the office sector.

Headquartered in Downtown Orlando, our professional experience and extensive knowledge of the Central Florida market enables us to achieve maximum transaction value, and optimal return on investment for our clients.

Morrison Commercial Real Estate provides landlord, owner and tenant representation services in leasing, buying, selling and site selection of commercial property in Central Florida.

Contact: Marylyn Tryon, 407.219.3500, 407.219.3501 fax, mtryon@morrisoncre.com, http://www.morrisoncre.com/

Senior Housing and Healthcare Borrowers Looking Forward to More of the Same as Fed Leaves Interest Rate Near Zero

CHICAGO, IL--Those senior housing/healthcare borrowers who've been wondering how long interest rates will continue to scrape bottom can't say the Federal Reserve Board hasn't been sending clear signals about its intentions.

While acknowledging that extended periods of low interest rates have led to excessive risk-taking in the financial markets in the past, the Fed has remained steadfastly committed to a strategy of keeping rates as low as possible for as long as possible to combat weakness in the U.S. economy, funding expert Jeffrey A. Davis (top right photo) observes.

Davis is Chairman of Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, one of the nation’s leading senior housing/healthcare lenders. He points out that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (middle left photo)  is a thoughtful student of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and has repeatedly warned that a much stronger recovery early in the course of that downturn was choked off by the Fed tightening monetary policy too soon.

“Apparently, the consensus view of central bank policymakers is that the recovery is in an early stage and still fragile,” he noted.

The federal funds rate is the rate banking institutions charge each other for overnight loans and is used as the benchmark for the interest paid on credit cards, home equity loans and many business loans.

Effectively, the rate was set by the Fed between zero and 0.25 percent in December 2008 and has remained in this range since then.

 Critics of the Fed’s policy say keeping the rate this low does not really help the economy and only succeeds in subsidizing bank profits. Others argue that the low rates are, in fact, the reason why banks have not been lending.

“But, so far, these are not the ideas that have been driving policy,” Davis observes.

He thinks it’s unlikely that the interest rate level is what’s keeping bankers on the lending sidelines. More likely, concerns about losses on previous loans, coupled with worries about the ability of borrowers to repay new loans in a soft economy, are the larger factors impacting banking decisions at this time.

In the company‘s senior housing/healthcare forecast for 2010, Davis predicts that debt markets will continue to be challenged over the next 12 months, with both lenders and investors continuing to fixate on how well transactions support underlying economics.

“The major national banks will not be in the picture, but regional and community banks could be stepping up to fill some funding gaps for senior housing/healthcare borrowers in the months ahead. And others, including insurance companies, credit companies, and private and institutional equity investors, could become more active as well.

“With demand through the roof, we also anticipate that HUD will have another banner year in 2010,” he said.

Because conditions invariably change, Davis says he is advising clients to take advantage of today’s low rates while they can.

Contact:  Evan Washington, Phone: (312) 521-7603, Fax: (312) 357-1611, E-Mail: ew@cambridgecap.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/CambridgeCap