Toolsview all


OKC commercial realty needs skittish capital to relax

 
By Richard Mize | Published: September 6, 2008    Comment on this article Leave a comment

It always happens with a good, knowledgeable source: I asked Tim Strange, managing director of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate's Oklahoma City office, too many questions for the Executive Q&A feature last Sunday — and he had too many good answers to fit.

Advertisement

Here's the rest of his story:

Q. There are always challenges ahead in business. What challenges lie ahead in the commercial real estate business here? What will it take to meet them?

A. By far the greatest challenge facing our market is the difficulty in obtaining capital to finance deals.

While we have been unaffected by the national downturn, Oklahoma City has not been able to escape the effects of the crisis being seen in the financial markets. With buyers finding it more difficult to secure financing, it has caused the amount of deals closed in the Oklahoma City market in 2008 to decrease, as well as increasing the amount of time it takes to complete a deal.

There are many ways to meet this challenge. First, sellers must become more realistic in their pricing in order for buyers to secure financing. Lenders are rarely financing pro-forma deals. Second, buyers, under the guidance of commercial brokers, must consider pursuing alternative forms of financing such as seller-financed deals or ... deals that have assumable debt.

A continuing challenge is for the city and state to lure big companies to Oklahoma City. While we are blessed by the growth in the oil-and-gas sector, it is important for our economy to be as diverse as possible so that if there is a downturn in any one sector, there is enough diversity to maintain the strength of the economy.

Oklahoma City has a growing number of aging properties in all categories of space. These are the properties responsible for a bulk of the vacancy in the city. We need to explore options on what to do with these properties such as redevelopment.

Q. At the bottom of the 1980s oil bust, there was that off-color bumper sticker that said something like "God, grant us one more oil boom and we promise not to (let it get) away.

Page 1 of 2

Toolsview all





Leave a Comment

Thank you for joining our conversation on NewsOK.com. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy. Please help by flagging comments that violate these guidelines. Posts that contain obscene or vulgar language will be immediately flagged and not posted.

If you prefer your thoughts to appear in The Oklahoman, we encourage you to submit a letter to the editor.

Would you like to leave a comment?

Log in or sign up (it's free).

comments powered by Disqus

Ads by Yahoo!

Woman is 53 But Looks 24
Mom reveals simple wrinkle secret that has angered doctors...
ConsumerLifestyles.org
President Lowers Mortgage
If you owe under $729k you probably qualify for the Govt Refi Program.
www.MortgageRatesExperts.com

News Photo Galleriesview all