$100M in Assignments Launches Distressed Debt Group

BETHESDA, MD-Brownstone Capital, LLC, a commercial real estate investment and advisory firm, is refocusing its opportunistic and value-add development bona fides into a new offering–a distressed debt restructuring group. The locally-based company, which began hiring for the group a few months ago, is transiting its real estate expertise into a range of services for both borrowers and lenders that are dealing with distressed commercial real estate debt and equity workouts.

Already the company has landed about $100 million in assignments, according to Stephen Carboni, who along with Shawn Krantz is one of the group’s top principals. “We are not completely abandoning our former business model–but this will definitely be our primary focus going forward,” he tells GlobeSt.com.

Services offered by the group will include land acquisition, development and construction loan workouts; non-performing loan reviews; asset and collateral analysis; comprehensive development of workout plans; loan valuation and NPV analysis; negotiating discounted payoffs and loan guarantees; developing bankruptcy avoidance/alternative strategies; asset management plan development; recapitalizing projects by contributing new equity; and expert witness testimony.

In its previous incarnation, the company has had a hand in distresseddebt: Krantz and Carboni have advised on more than $3.1 billion of distressed debt and equity restructures. They have also handled some$8.5 billion in transactional real estate experience over the past 25 years, including several deals in the DC area. To cite just one example, last year Brownstone Capital sold 9121-9129 Gaither Rd., a bulk warehouse in Gaithersburg, MD for $11 million, after acquiring it for $5.4 million in 2002.