Capital Experts: Sponsorship is Key

Moderator Les Callahan (at podium) asked panel members to discuss lessons learned from the last cycle.

ATLANTA—Capital experts in the Atlanta region offered their perspectives on how deals are restructured and offered observations on lessons learned during the last real estate market cycle during a panel session at RealShare Atlanta on Thursday.

“A lot of the deals that I look at are sponsor-driven,” said Yakhin Israel, VP, investment commercial real estate lending, Fifth Third Bank. “Outside of that, the main factor is location. One of the lessons we have learned is that you need to stick to fundamentals. We have been fairly measured in our growth. If we start with a sponsor to run the plays in good markets, we can find a deal.”