organ Sued Over Its Involvement in the Sale of Good Technology Inc.
Good Technology Inc is a mobile security provider that is today owned by BlackBerry Limited. How BlackBerry acquired the company and the price they paid is at the heart of the controversy.Good Technology works behind the scenes to manage and secure data and mobile devices. It also works with many app providers….
Continue Reading JP Morgan Sued for Conflict of Interest (Lender Liability Post)

So many shopping centers are struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. Even with a vaccine, many experts say that the face of retail shopping has changed forever. How many people will permanently shop online once things return to normal?Since the pandemic began, mall owners have had to contend with stay at home orders, orders limiting occupancy, extra precautions for workers and…
Continue Reading Shopping Centers Say Lender Interfering with Tenants

In today’s commercial real estate market, commercial loans are often pooled together to create commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). These loan pools typically have several tranches. Each varies in credit quality and payment priority.The first-to-be paid tranches of bondholders usually possess investment grade securities. These are the A class bondholders. The last…
Continue Reading CMBS Mortgages and B Piece Buyers

It’s been a very long year for our friends in the retail and hospitality industry. Many mall and hotel owners are barely hanging on. Many are in default although special servicers have not actively sought to foreclose on most defaulted properties. In this post we look at the current state of affairs for project owners and what the future holds.When we last wrote an update (October…
Continue Reading Hotels and Hospitality Industry – CMBS Update

Anyone who owns an office building, shopping center or other commercial space has probably seen their property values decrease since the pandemic began. Particularly hard hit are hotels, especially those in tourist areas.

The Financial Times reported in September that values are down an average of 27% with hotels in some areas seeing even larger drops. The article sites a…
Continue Reading Hotel Values Plummet – Borrowers Seeking Help

Recently we read a story about the effects of COVID-19 on the hospitality and retail industry. It said that borrowers in “pandemic freefall struggle to avoid default.” Unfortunately, those struggles are real. We are seeing the worst year on record for hotel occupancy and sales figures. And things aren’t likely to get better soon.

Just about every industry…
Continue Reading Hotel and Shopping Center Loans in a Freefall – How to Survive

[This post is taken from court documents and a story published by Law360. Although we represent the Plaintiffs in the lawsuits, we do not comment on pending litigation.]
Many commercial projects are financed with CMBS loans. Short for “Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities,” CMBS loans start out like a regular loan but once the loan closes, the lender bows out.
If…
Continue Reading Anatomy of a Lawsuit Against Rialto Capital Partners

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Slides also available in this pdf:
Continue Reading COVID-19 Crisis Management for Hotel Owners

[Editor’s Note: Our firm typically does not take consumer cases. Our practice is limited to actions where people and businesses have suffered out-of-pocket losses of $5 million or more. We also represent commercial borrowers with mortgage of a similar size or larger.
While we do not typically accept consumer cases, we have taken class action cases against lenders. The average consumer…
Continue Reading Mortgage Company Pay by Phone Fees – Stop the Ripoff

As lender liability law firms go, we are one of one of the few that only represent borrowers. Never banks, special servicers or lenders. Our mission is to protect property owners from predatory lenders. Today many borrowers are at risk. The COVID-19 pandemic has everyone in the hospitality industry concerned. After you read what some banks are planning, you will also be angry.
Earlier…
Continue Reading Secret Coronavirus Memo from a Bank Lawyer – Must Read for Business Owners

Our phones have been ringing off the hook. Hotel and mall owners need help. The hospitality and retail industry went into crisis mode virtually overnight. According to Fitch Ratings, 2,600 commercial borrowers have already sought help. And that was in just two weeks of March! We suspect many borrowers were unable to make their April payments. With little end in sight, we think the situation will…
Continue Reading Record Numbers of CMBS Borrowers Need Help – Covid-19

Yesterday Goldman Sachs predicted America’s GDP for the 2nd quarter would plunge a breathtaking 24%. Previously, the largest drop in U.S. history occurred in 1958. That was just 10%. Despite all the doom and gloom, both the government and private sector are working together to keep businesses operating and people employed. The exception is LNR Partners, one of the largest CMBS loan…
Continue Reading LNR Partners… Coronavirus Scrooge Award

[Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in September 2014 on our sister site Mahany Law. The post has been rewritten and moved to this site. Important information appears at the end relative to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the hospitality industry.]
Imagine that you are a borrower on a major commercial real estate project. Your project has plenty of equity, but…
Continue Reading LNR Partners – Storm Clouds Brewing for Special Servicers (CMBS Post)