He tells GlobeSt.com that while the firm has no hard metrics orbenchmarks in place for its Northeast loan portfolio, "I've set agoal of $150 million for the first year," in 2008. Theoretically,he adds, the company would like to process the same volume, give ortake, every year but that can be difficult to project. "That is abig cumulative number of just one area of the country. Goingforward, the conduits are likely to jump back in sooner orlater."

Washington says the company's loan criteria is fairly broad. Itis interested in both refinance and new development. Class A isfine, as is anything that requires a value add, such as deals thatrequire a $5,000 to $20,000 per unit rehab. "The deals have to workfrom an underwriting perspective but we want to cast a widenet."

Washington added that the firm is also willing to considerso-called broken condo opportunities, but on a more limited basis."The best ones are those that have only a small number of unitssold as condos. There are things that can be done within the DUSprogram to make those deals work."