Stephen Richter, CFO of Weingarten Realty Investors, is quoted by Wall Street Journal as saying: “Today I’m sitting with $125 million in cash that I can’t find investment for.”
Weingarten and other public real estate investment trusts have raised some $24 billion in funds last year for an anticipated glut of distressed and undervalued commercial properties. However, the REITs had only $4.6 billion worth of transactions according to a 2009 trending report from Real Capital Analytics. Bob Steers, co-chief executive of REIT investor Cohen & Steers Inc., suggests the reason for this is: “The volume of the properties that are truly distressed and will be sold in a distressed fashion will be significantly less than had initially been thought.”
Lenders appear to be more interested in extending loans for existing property owners than forclosing, and so releiving the pressures involved with distressed property management.
Keywords: Bob Steers, Cohen & Steers, investment, loan, property, Real Capital Analytics, REIT, Stephen Richter, Weingarten Realty Investors
