Dealing with the Crisis: Roundtable Participants

MODERATORSScott MelnickTranswestern Institutional Multifmaily Group“Al [Cissel] and I have been partners at Transwestern for the past seven years, and we have a common thread with everybody here. We did make sure that we invited people that we closed deals and worked with over the last year or so, and we look forward to more opportunities.”Al CisselTranswestern Institutional Multifamily Group “Al Cissel with Transwestern, Institutional Multifamily Group. Scott and myself head up the Institutional Multifamily Group at Transwestern.” Keat FoongMulti-Housing News “I’m Keat Foong with Multi-Housing News magazine. We are a monthly, full-color publication that goes out to multifamily developers, owners, and managers.  I very much look forward to getting a real update on what’s going on in the industry.” PANELISTSAlec BrackenridgeEquity Residential “I’m Alec Brackenridge with Equity Residential. We own a large number of apartment buildings. We buy them, run them, build them, sometimes convert them into condos, even to this day. I work out of our Boston office, running what we call the investment side, which incorporates acquisitions, dispositions, and capital allocation. I’ve been involved on the equity side for 15 years, most of the time buying property interspersed with asset management from time-to-time.  This happens to be one of those asset management times, so right now I go around and tell the property manager that they don’t need to replace that hallway carpet today.” Timothy BrightING Clarion Partners“Tim Bright with ING Clarion. We’re an investment advisor.  We have a portfolio of separate accounts and several funds.  We operate primarily for pension funds and other network groups. I am in the portfolio management group and work on multifamily on the East Coast.” Todd Grasinger Archstone “Tom Grasinger with Archstone, and I’ll echo Greg [Lamb] and say that rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated.  We’re still here.  I work on acquisitions and dispositions for the eastern region, which is Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Florida.” Greg Lamb JPI “My name is Greg Lamb.  I’m the regional partner for JPI’s mid-Atlantic office. I’ll start and openly say that JPI is open and operating at this point in time. There have been some great rumors that have been running around the last couple of days regarding our company and they are not true. We are one fo the largest managers, developers and builders of multifamily product in the country. The mid-Atlantic region has had some great success over the years and I absolutely look forward to continuing that business model in the future. I’ve been with JPI for nine years. Prior to that I had some affordable housing experience that may now be coming back into play, and that is good timing.” John Majeski AIMCO “John Majeski with AIMCO, out of the Washington, D.C. office.  I’m head of acquisitions and dispositions in the mid-Atlantic area. I’ve been with AIMCO for about five years now.  I have previous experience with the JD Roberts Company, both on the affordable side of multifamily housing, as well as the conventional side.” Bill ReversFairfield Residential “Bill Revers for Fairfield Residential.  We’re a California-based private real estate investment company.  We have a merchant development group which I’m not a part of, and a redevelopment group which I work out of. I am based in the Bethesda office, handling the region from Washington through New England.” Lacy RiceFederal Capital Partners “I’m Lacy Rice with Federal Capital Partners.  We’re a Washington-based real estate investment company, focusing on the mid-Atlantic market.  We invest in office, industrial and residential assets.  For better or worse, we effectively run the residential group. We buy apartments, and we invest in land.  We’re currently investing out of a $230 million discretionary equity fund.” Scott RossRoss Development and Investment“Scott Ross with Ross Development and Investment. We just celebrated our 26th anniversary of multifamily work in metropolitan Washington. We focus only on multifamily and only in this region. We’re also a property manager and a rehabber. We participate in all parts of the process, and we are a vertically integrated company. We have had the good opportunity to work with Al [Cissel] and Scott [Melnick] for a long time. We are sitting here amazed at the confluence of events we all are now witnessing.”  Robert RyanM & T Bank “Bob Ryan; the only lender in the room.  I’ve been a lender since I got out of college 22 or 23 years ago. I was a banker for eight years, and I have been involved in a lot of commercial product in the last 15 years. I’ve specialized in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily financing and a financing from a couple of other companies around the country. I work for a wholly-owned subsidiary of M&T Bank. M&T Bank is lending money, believe it or not, as a bank and to our division.  We’re about the 18th largest bank and have about $70 billion in assets. I work for M&T Realty Capital, primarily focusing in helping clients with Fannie, Freddie, HUD, and, when they come around, some condo, financing.” Richard SchechterBainbridge Companies LLC“I’m Richard Schechter and I’m managing partner of the Bainbridge Company. We’re an East Coast developer, owner and manager of mostly market-rate communities, and some retail and office. We’re in the business of building apartment communities and also buying apartment communities and fixing them up. We tend to be a midterm holder of three to seven years. I have the fortune, I hope, of having bought a large group of properties from Scott [Melnick] now. We’ll see how that turns out over the next three or four years.”