Hilton Worldwide Announces CEO, CFO of REIT Spin-Off: Hilton’s new real estate investment trust has found a President & CEO in Thomas Baltimore Jr. and a CFO in Sean Dell-Orto. The REIT will complete formation later this year as a separate entity from Hilton Worldwide.
A Call for a New National Housing Policy: At the 2016 ULI Spring Meeting last week, real estate professionals and politicians such as J. Ron Terwilliger, chairman of Terwilliger – Pappas Multifamily Properties, and Martin O’Malley, former Maryland Governor, discussed the current affordable housing problem. The professionals noted that federal housing policy favors homeowners over renters. Panelists noted that new policy is needed and strategies such as mixed-income communities and encouraging public/private partnerships could be catalyst of encouraging policy reforms.
Cracks are Spreading in the Online Industry out to Disrupt Banks: Startups like LendingClub and Prosper are looking to new methods of increasing revenue as regulators tighten the reigns and investors begin to get bored. LendingClub recently raised interest rates for specific customers for a third time and is now planning to sell bonds backed by unsecured loans. While these online lenders are making loans that are riskier than traditional methods, they are also facing higher levels of loan delinquencies.
Fed Signals No Rush to Hike Rates as Economy Hits Soft Patch: As the economy is slowing down, the Federal Reserve decided to not change interest rates this week. However, investors are facing a 23% probability that the overnight lending rate will rise this June.
The Little-Known CMBS bill that Could have a Major Impact on NYC Real Estate: The Preserving Access to CRE Capital Act will exempt single-asset or single-borrower CMBS from the new risk retention rules which are planned to to effect in December. “It would also make it far easier for CMBS pooled together from different borrowers to get an exemption, for example by scrapping term requirements,” according to the Real Deal.
