Bison Financial Group
Bison Tales: Newsletter Archive
Thank you for visiting the newsletter archive section of our web site. Bison Tales is a e-newsletter sent a maximum of one time per month. We share news of closed deals and investor/lender sentiment. Since 1994 Bison has been a resource to real estate investors, developers and turnaround artists. For more information on our track record please visit our web site. For our continually updated thoughts and views on the direction of the commercial real estate visit our blog.
 
  • Bison Tales September 2009 (click to view full newsletter)
  • As we celebrate the 143rd anniversary of the birth of celebrated writer H.G. Wells, we discuss one of his most famous works, The Time Machine. If only the issues facing the commercial real estate industry could be solved by a Time Machine and we could travel back to the boom times of 2005-2006. Would we make the same decisions to buy and finance properties with massive debt loads? with teaser interest rates? with short term maturities? with interest funded by capitalized interest reserves not operations? with loans based on future rent growth? with loans based on the liquidation of the property as condos not the cash flow that could be generated as apartments? Chances are the answer is NO! Since we don't have a time machine, where do we go from here?
  • Bison Tales June 2009 (click to view full newsletter)
  • The key to understanding the parallels between Darwin and the crisis facing the commercial real estate industry is not in the "survival of the fittest" or "King of the Mountain" sense, but in understanding Darwin's concept of adaptation. Adaptation is defined as "a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of the variants best-suited for their environment."
  • Bison Tales: April 2009 (click to view full newsletter)
  • Death, Dying and Commercial Real Estate... The last few months have been devastating to the commercial financing industry. To my liberal arts college educated brain the catastrophic shift in the global capital markets and how they impact us can be better understood through the ground breaking work of Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. (pictured) and her work on death and dying. I believe that her "Five Stages of Grief" from her 1969 book "On Death and Dying" can be applied to the current recession.
  • Bison Tales: February 2009 (click to view full newsletter)
  • Welcome to the Nietzsche Market of 2009... This week I attended the ICSC Idea Exchange in Tampa, FL. The recurring theme I kept hearing over and over from Retailers, Developers, Investors, Brokers & Bankers is SURVIVAL. This got me thinking about German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
  • Bison Tales: October 2008 (click to view full newsletter)
  • A year ago... what was more unlikely? ...the Rays making it to the ALCS and having a shot at going to the World Series or the fall from grace of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, IndyMac, AIG, Countrywide, WaMu & Wachovia?
  • Bison Tales: April 2008 (click to view full newsletter)
  • Newton's Third Law in Action! When I was preparing this month's newsletter... my mind wandered to thoughts of Isaac Newton. His third law of motion states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
  • Bison Tales: February 2008 (click to view full newsletter)
  • Duck & Cover! Many commercial lenders are practicing "the old duck & cover maneuver" others see this as a time of unprecedented opportunity not seen since the RTC/FDIC days.
  • Bison Tales: November 2007 (click to view full newsletter)
  • Bison Delivers a Happy Thanksgiving to Local Shopping Center Developer
  • Bison Tales: October 2007 (click to view full newsletter)
  • David (Repka) vs. Goliath... Our lead story this month is about how we saved a deal at the 11th hour by bringing in a small, nimble, creative lender to replace the household name "Goliath" (brought in by someone else) that stumbled on the way to the altar.
Bison Financial Group
449 Central Avenue
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
727-289-4400
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