Surprise!

December 14, 2010 | 7:00 am ET Staff Reporter

Just in time for the holidays, the panelists at today's Bisnow Capital Markets breakfast discussed whether or not the gift of 2010 was the socks they expected or the Acura with the big bow that they've been wishing for. 300 of you joined us this morning at 155 N. Wacker to hear what else the equity and debt experts had to say.

White Oak Realty's Rick Blum says 2010 was exactly what he expected—the same from beginning to end, with well-leased buildings selling and plenty of equity still in the marketplace. White Oak bought Central Park in Lisle in early 2010 and is finishing off the year developing 625 W. Adams. Bentall Kennedy's Shobi Khan was pleasantly surprised, expecting to put about $500M into the marketplace but in reality placing about $900M, and selling several properties as well. John Buck Co's Blake Johnson says the biggest difficulty is he still can't underwrite job growth since the market isn't growing quickly, so development will continue to be a challenge. Tishman Speyer's Casey Wold says there's equity and debt available for the possible purchase of a $350M, 1.2M SF office tower on N. Clark St (maybe one with an address north of Kinzie but south of Illinois...), if you choose the right horse to lend for you.

On the debt side, Wrightwood Capital's Jason Cholouchas is hoping to double the company's 2010 investments next year, but he says that doubles a very small number. Wells Fargo's Mike Svets says more job growth could eventually bring lending back to 2007 levels, but he would have to see a growth of 300k jobs per month. Wells Fargo has made about $6B in loans this year. CB Richard Ellis' John Clifford says the average time it takes to close a transaction has lengthened to 120 days, but more lenders are willing to take the risk in primary markets. Hillenbrand Partners' Eric Hillenbrand says 2010 started as a mess and got worse. He feels we need to go back to the simpler RTC days. Walton Street Capital's Jay Weaver compared '10 to recovering from a hangover but predicted mezz lending would return in 2011, giving lenders access to 75% to 80% leverage for the right products.

The temperature outside may have been 10 degrees, but the crowd was also a 10! Thanks to The John Buck Co for providing the space on the 41st floor, which was recently leased.

New service lines abounded with UGL Services' Ed Wlodarczyk and Sperry Van Ness' Jim Thanasaurus and Scott Maesel. Ed's starting a new capital markets group at UGL to be renamed UGL Services, combining Equis and Unicco. Sperry Van Ness held its first auction on Friday, which had a successful bidder and should close on the property within the next two weeks.

Leopardo's Ruben Ruban, JMB Financial's John Howley and Marcus & Millichap's David Gaines compared notes after the conference. David recently closed on two Class C apartment buildings in Sioux City, Iowa, with US Bank providing the financing. David says it's the first bank-financed deal he's done in years. John closed on an apartment in Jacksonville, Fla. And Ruben is hoping to get work on one of the 10 apartment towers slated to begin construction in 2011.

We snapped Meridian's Stephen Bus, Kelar Capital Partners' Keith Largay, AMLI Residential's James McCormick, and Dunne Real Estate Capital's James Dunne. AMLI recently secured financing at the AMLI River North for $65M. James is about to close on a busted condo deal and a pool of apartment assets in the city.

Surprise!

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