The Corridor Journal of Strategic Alliances Building Arts & Real Property | Page 7
tax-exempt debt to finance infrastructure. “Our firm is
at the very forefront,” Rubenstein says.
Demand for new hotels on Long Island continues to be
brisk—we are still below average in rooms for our size
market. But of all business sectors, the RMF real estate
partners view medically-related uses as the prime area
for future growth.
During the Great Recession, national banks, Wall
Street and insurance companies all suffered real estate
losses, including some deals on Long Island. There
were workouts and deals that got started had to be
scaled back. Have lenders since come all the way
back in? Rubenstein answered, “The lenders are more
conservative than before, and with more stringent
underwriting, so while they say they are willing to lend
to real estate developers, they take longer to approve
deals and are lending smaller amounts as a percentage
of the project.”
Nonetheless “two years ago it was hard to get a
commitment even on a small financing needed for
a property acquisition,” Leno says. “Now it’s the
opposite-- the banks want to put their money to use
and are back in the market.”
The local banks of Long Island also play an important
role as relationship banks for deals in the $5 to $25
million range, and RMF represents some of them in
their active pursuit of good projects, or as lower-tier
lenders in some bigger projects.
Rubenstein and Ambrosino once had a meeting in
Virginia with the general counsel for a European
manufacturer. He said that his firm expected to get
the usual tax breaks when they acquired property
in a high-cost area like Long Island. But what really
sells them about LI, he shared, is the incredibly good
schools and high workforce productivity. RMF helps its
clients to leverage those assets.
Sometimes you build a project, and hope that after
years waiting for it to be finished the market demand
will still be there. “It requires fortitude, vision and
creativity. But if we build well and identify the right
projects, then the tenants and the market demand is
likely to follow,” Leno says.
Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. may be contacted at:
516-663-6600. Visit the website www.rmfpc.com for
detailed information about the practice and attorneys’
areas of expertise.
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