Last week marked several milestones for Horsham, Pa.-based Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC. The commercial mortgage lender and servicer agreed to buy Florida-based commercial mortgage banking firm Tavernier Capital Partners LLC (TCP), announced a new co-chief of healthcare financing, extended a proprietary loan program and received initial servicer ratings from Morningstar.
Berkadia's definitive agreement to purchase TCP's conventional mortgage banking assets will add approximately 20 employees and nearly $2 billion of life company servicing, as well as offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Boca Raton and Miami. The deal is expected to close within 30 days.
‘The anticipated acquisition of Tavernier Capital Partners marks completion of another step in Berkadia's strategy to expand our originations platform,’ says Karl Reinlein, head of production for Berkadia. ‘TCP's strong position in the Southeast U.S. market and their dedication to clients in the life insurance and pension fund spaces made them an attractive addition to our originations and servicing businesses.’
The majority of TCP's current employees were part of Berkadia predecessor firms GMACCM and Capmark. The deal does not include TCP subsidiaries Tavernier Capital Funding or Tavernier Capital Services.
Berkadia also has announced that Daniel J. Biron has joined the firm as a senior vice president, to serve as co-head of healthcare financing with Stephen J. Ervin, who joined the firm in August. Biron will oversee all loan originations for the healthcare and senior housing industry through Berkadia's agency financing and proprietary lending programs.
Prior to joining Berkadia, Biron worked at Walker & Dunlop, where he served as senior vice president and group head of healthcare finance and was responsible for the origination of senior debt financing through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the senior housing industry nationwide.
Also joining Berkadia's healthcare group is Christopher Fenton, who serves as a vice president. Based in Massachusetts, Fenton is responsible for healthcare financing production in the Northeast region. Prior to joining Berkadia, he was a vice president at Deutsche Bank Berkshire Mortgage and a vice president at Love Funding, specializing in healthcare.
Berkadia has also extended its proprietary bridge-lending program, which launched in March, to owners and operators eligible for agency financing in the senior housing and healthcare asset classes. The program offers mortgages of $5 million to $25 million, with terms of 10 months to two years for acquisition, refinancing and development projects, and will accommodate some larger deals as appropriate.
Lastly, Morningstar Credit Ratings LLC has assigned Berkadia a MOR CS2 ranking as a commercial mortgage primary servicer, a MOR CS2 ranking as a commercial mortgage master servicer, and a MOR CS1 ranking as a
commercial mortgage special servicer. The agency's forecasts for Berkadia's commercial mortgage primary and master servicer rankings are favorable, and its forecast for the special servicer ranking is stable.
Berkadia is in the midst of an organization redesign that lowers the costs of servicing, Morningstar says. In recent months, Berkadia has empowered its offshore staff in India and the Philippines as the initial point of contact to address a range of portfolio management tasks for loans up to $30 million, which Morningstar views as a high threshold.
Berkadia reports that its subject matters in the U.S. still directly handle larger and more complex assets and provide quality control over offshore work. Morningstar says it will continue to monitor the effectiveness of this "sharply changed" organizational structure.
Morningstar's review also notes overall favorable investor feedback, which indicates Berkadia's responsiveness to information requests, information accuracy and quality of its investor website.