We see a lot of ground leases when looking at deals in larger markets like New York City and San Francisco, but less so when looking at commercial real estate loans in Las Vegas or St Louis. I think Jay has hit upon a smart market strategy as there aren’t a lot of national players going after this business. It makes attaining commercial real estate loans a bit more challenging due to the ground lease, but good lawyers usually solve any issues surrounding it as long as the lease is fairly long-term. We’ve had a few deals where the commercial real estate mortgage interest rates ticked up a bit for these types of assets where we’re only financing the building but the deals have all closed.

– Adam Horowitz, Principal of Lever Capital Partners and President of the Real Estate Capital Alliance

Click here to read more about Sugarman’s thoughts on the reinvention of the ground lease business.