CLEVELAND—As reported in GlobeSt.com, BellwetherEnterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC recentlyentered into a merger agreement with TowleFinancial Services, a mortgage banking firm in Minneapolisand Detroit, and Ned Huffman, Bellwether'spresident, says the company is ready to grow even more.

He wants Bellwether Enterprise to have a true national presence,with personnel handling affordable and market-rate business inevery region, he tells GlobeSt.com. Although the most importantfactor in opening a new office or completing a merger is findingthe right local partner, “we are especially interested in findingopportunities in some of the areas in the country where we'recurrently light,” such as the Southeast. The company does have anoffice in Raleigh that handles affordable housing, but “we need togo deeper than that.”

Bellwether currently has a total annual loan volume of about$2.4 billion and “the goal within two or three years is to get to$3.5 to $4.0 billion a year,” he says. The Cleveland-based companyhas been expanding across the country in recent months,opening up a Western Regional office in California andanother office in Boston. The Towle deal, which will close inSeptember, establishes a company presence in Minneapolis andDetroit for the first time and will bring about $400 million inannual loan volume and $1.4 billion in servicing.