Two Large Mezzanine Loan Conferences in New York City

I just returned from New York City where I attended two different conferences on mezzanine loans and structured finance.  The first conference was entitled "Structured Finance" and was put on by RealShare.  The second conference was entitled "Mezzanine Loans" and was put on by the Information Management Network.

Folks, the attendees at these conferences were the big boys.  I remember chatting up a very polite banker from one of the larger international banks.  "C-Loans.com will close 200 commercial loans this year totaling $200 million," I boasted.  "George," he replied, "$200 million is our average deal size.  We did one loan this year for $1.3 billion."  Yup, these were the big boys.

The general consensus of the two mezzanine loan conferences was this:  1.  Every mezzanine fund in the country has money coming out of its gills (they are very "liquid").  2.  Commercial real estate is fully-valued, if not over-valued.  3.  Good mezzanine loan requests are very difficult to find.  4.  Even though reasonable, cash-flowing deals can no longer be found, the pressure to lend out the assets of these mezzanine loan funds is so great that virtually every fund intended to keep doing deals.  5.  Most panelists expected a severe correction in commercial real estate values very soon.  Some even feared a "train wreck."  6.  Nevertheless the mezzanine loan funds intended to keep lending.

There are hundreds of mezzanine lenders in the country.  It is very difficult for a developer to find the cheapest mezzanine lender in the country on his own.  Developers and investors can choose from over fifty different mezzanine lenders by applying through MezzanineLoans.com.