Investors looking for a play on the commercial real estate market but don’t have the stomach for defaults and declining property values may have an interesting alternative on the horizon. The company is Velocity Commercial Capital and it filed to go public late last week. It’s relatively small but that’s what makes it attractive.
The company originates or buys small business commercial real estate loans. All are first lein. And the largest loan it will get involved with is $3 million. The average loan value in its portfolio is $391,000.
If the name Jason Ader sounds familiar, it should – especially if you followed gaming and lodging companies back in the mid-1990s. Back in the day, the now 42-year-old Ader was a star equity and high-yield analyst for Bear Stearns (named among Institutional Investor’s top research analysts a number of years.) He left Bear Stearns long before it blew up. But before he moved on, he forged some strong business relationships. So Ader, and two former Bear investment bankers (Daniel Silvers and Joseph Weinberger, both 33), are playing a key role in the formation of a new real estate investment trust designed to invest in the ultra-distressed hotel business.
