News-Press
Lloyd Mandel developed the Shoppes at the Forest center on U.S. 41.
Now he and SunTrust Bank are on a battle over a mortgage for the property.
Lloyd Mandel says he fulfilled his part of a bargain with SunTrust Bank: He built a strip mall in south Fort Myers, and leased out most of it.
Now Mandel, of Mandel & Simms Real Estate, wants to convert his construction loan to a mortgage at the rate agreed upon two years ago when the project got started.
But, he says, SunTrust won't honor the deal, citing various "outs" in the contract such as a drop in the value of the property.
"We're not going to comment on a particular client," said SunTrust spokesman Mike McCoy. But, he noted, "we obviously are in the business to make loans to creditworthy borrowers."
If banks start exercising their rights on a large scale to get out of agreements to lend, Mandel said, "no piece of commercial property in Lee County is safe if it's got a mortgage on it."
Whatever the future holds, experts say, it's clear in the past few months more builders are facing a troublesome combination of plummeting commercial values and cash-strapped bankers who can't — or won't — make the loans.
Now, with their back to the wall, some builders are fighting back. Tactics include filing to reorganize in bankruptcy court in an attempt to get a judge's intervention.
Mandel said he's considering taking that course, noting the bankruptcy judge has power to write down a commercial loan or otherwise change the terms.
"Since mid-November, I bet I've had a dozen people call recounting similar fact patterns across the Southeast," said Jack Williams, resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute and a bankruptcy professor at Georgia State University. "The story unfortunately isn't new to me. I think it's an indication of things to come."
Now Mandel, of Mandel & Simms Real Estate, wants to convert his construction loan to a mortgage at the rate agreed upon two years ago when the project got started.
But, he says, SunTrust won't honor the deal, citing various "outs" in the contract such as a drop in the value of the property.
"We're not going to comment on a particular client," said SunTrust spokesman Mike McCoy. But, he noted, "we obviously are in the business to make loans to creditworthy borrowers."
If banks start exercising their rights on a large scale to get out of agreements to lend, Mandel said, "no piece of commercial property in Lee County is safe if it's got a mortgage on it."
Whatever the future holds, experts say, it's clear in the past few months more builders are facing a troublesome combination of plummeting commercial values and cash-strapped bankers who can't — or won't — make the loans.
Now, with their back to the wall, some builders are fighting back. Tactics include filing to reorganize in bankruptcy court in an attempt to get a judge's intervention.
Mandel said he's considering taking that course, noting the bankruptcy judge has power to write down a commercial loan or otherwise change the terms.
"Since mid-November, I bet I've had a dozen people call recounting similar fact patterns across the Southeast," said Jack Williams, resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute and a bankruptcy professor at Georgia State University. "The story unfortunately isn't new to me. I think it's an indication of things to come."
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