Orlando FL Business and Commercial Law Blog

With the commercial real estate markets remaining soft, a recent acquisition may bring hope for some real estate investors. A real estate investment trust, Parkway Properties Inc., based in Orlando, Florida, recently purchased a Class A office building in Tempe, Arizona, adding to its growing investment fund portfolio.

The Hayden Ferry II building was purchased February 13 for $86 million and now the REIT owns both buildings -- Hayden Ferry I and II. The seller of the property was not disclosed, but the property was purchased in 2008 for $92.5 million and was built in 2007 by SunCor.

While the housing market has been struggling nationwide, there are problems on the horizon in Florida with commercial properties trying to refinance, sell or recapitalize.

Lenders are now trying to deal with loans that were made during the real estate boom of 2007. Commercial real estate properties, like residential properties, have seen a fall in value and many lenders are finding themselves with a loan to ratio value of 100 percent -- hardly an ideal situation when trying to find an investor to buy or refinance the loan. Most lenders aren't interested in a highly leveraged loan, so a borrower could find an equity partner to add more capital to the deal, lowering the overall amount of debt on the property to make it more attractive to refinance.

Financial behemoth Branch Banking and Trust has announced it wants to go ahead with its purchase of Florida's BankAtlantic, even though there are several legal concerns in the way.

BankAtlantic, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, has $3.3 billion in deposits, $2.1 billion in loans and 78 branches. Unfortunately, it also has a parent company that is in trouble with the SEC over allegations that it misled investors with respect to loan risks.