| Eight hundred real estate pros sauntered over to the Waldorf last Thursday for NYU Schack Institute's 43rd annual capital markets conference (check out more coverage in Friday's national issue), where Bill Mack, founder of global fund manager AREA Property Partners, compared the Great Recession to the S&L Crisis. In the '90s, the government cleansed the system by dumping everything on the market. Now, banks are doing the opposite by “kicking the can down the road,” and the feds are encouraging that as long as a borrower can pay debt service. If the economy continues to grow, the value of bank-held assets will rise, Bill says, but with little financing, low values, and low LTVs, he wonders whether there will be enough equity to recapitalize the system. |
| It's a REIT/developer sandwich: Silverstein Properties' CEO Larry Silverstein and Vornado's Mike Fascitelli (perhaps shaking on a pre-panel deal?) on one side of Bill, and SL Green CEO Marc Holliday and Rudin Management CEO Bill Rudin on the other. Bill Mack says capital markets are still going to bounce around in NY, but at least the bottom has stabilized. Mike says Vornado is checking out the opportunities where it can add value over three or four years. Larry, too, is prepared to take the long view: “It's hard to go wrong in New York.” |
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