Commercial real estate lender CWCapital is planning to grow its originations by about $1 billion in the coming year and to that end is planning to hire as many as 35-50 new staffers. Michael Berman, president, said the expansion is part of CWCapital's five-year plan to boost originations to $3 billion to $4 billion by 2006. The company completed $1.6 billion of new loans last year and hopes to grow that to $2.5 billion in 2005.
As part of its plans, the company has hired Dee McClure from M&T Realty Capital, to expand its national HUD lending program. The company has always had a HUD program and completed $300 million through it last year. CWCapital wants to expand that to $400 million this year and as much as $600 million in 2005, Berman said. McClure will work out of the company's new Baltimore office and its existing Washington, office.
As it grows, CWCapital wants to expand its servicing platform and would consider buying or building a special servicing platform over the next 18 months. "We want to make one of our differentiating factors service to borrowers," Berman said. The company also is planning its first collateralized debt obligation, which will be marketed in the next 30 days, and has a number of new mezzanine products in the hopper.