Trigild Presents Fifth Annual Spring Lender Conference to Sell-out Crowd

    DALLAS, TX, May 08, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Continuing uncertainty about interest rates, falling oil and gas prices, maturing loans and changing regulations in the commercial real estate and financing markets topped the agenda for the Fifth Annual Trigild Spring Lending Conference, held late last month at the Hotel Zaza in Dallas.

Conference founder and Trigild president Judy Hoffman said the event was once again a sellout, with speakers exploring a wide range of topics of interest to lenders and CMBS servicers from around the country.

"Respected industry leaders addressed topics including the potential impact of sovereign wealth funds on CRE, alternative strategies for recovery and how loans are getting paid in today's market," Hoffman said. "There was a great deal of discussion about upcoming loan maturities with most panelists agreeing that they will have an effect - especially in tertiary markets - but the problem hinges on the direction of interest rates, availability of capital and property values."

Keynote speaker Victor Calanog, Ph.D., chief economist and senior vice president at Reis Inc., focused on the state of the economy as it relates to CRE.

A specialist in forecasting, valuation and portfolio analytics, Calanog said he does not foresee any large minefields in the economy like the 2008 housing bubble. While he noted he expects unemployment to continue to drop, he projects GDP growth to slow to 2.0 to 2.2 percent - less than the past three years but still positive.

He also highlighted several areas of interest to attendees, including:

• Continuing strength in the multifamily market, with millennials driving that growth.
• Industrial space remains on a solid path, but office properties remain challenged due to a significant drop in the per employee square footage needs.

• Retail also is facing issues, particularly in the growing numbers of aging malls.

Hoffman said that in the CMBS lending arena, risk retention is having an impact, with special servicers with legacy loans seeing increases in transfers. She also noted that with the drop in CMBS new originations, there are questions whether there is enough liquidity to refinance these loans.

Adding substance to her point was Donald Sheets of AlumCreek Holdings, who explained that more than 60 percent of all sovereign wealth fund assets are comprised of trade surplus linked to oil and commodities revenues, and the SWFs are heavy CRE investors.

Event sponsors included: Burr & Forman, Ballard Spahr, Miller Canfield, Polsinelli, Dentons, Venable, Keybank Real Estate Capital, Dickinson Wright, Sheppard Mullin, Trimont, Baker Donelson, O'Connor Cochran, Buchalter, Pepper Hamilton, Parker Poe and Bryan Cave.

The next Trigild Lender Conference is set for October 5 to 7, 2016, at the historic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

About Trigild

Headquartered in San Diego with offices throughout the country, Trigild has nearly 40 years of management and fiduciary expertise, with a focus on maximizing value for assets in an array of industries, including commercial real estate, multifamily and hospitality. Trigild has developed a full service national operating platform providing institutional quality services to private real estate investors and financial institutions. For information, visit http://www.trigild.com.

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