Interwest has acquired and is currently renovating two adjacent office buildings with 177,000 of combined NRSF located in Southfield, MI. Transwestern Commercial has been retained for management and leasing

Phoenix, AZ – Interwest Capital is pleased to announce that through its affiliate, PRG Properties Inc, it has entered into a joint venture agreement to acquire nearly 1,000 acres of residential land for single family development. The subject is currently being designed as a master planned community consisting of approximately 2,760 single family residential lots and with an estimated 150 acres reserved for open space, parks and amenities. The property is located in a rapidly growing section of the West Valley one mile north of Interstate 10. Estimated project completion cost is in excess of $100 million. Interwest Capital Corporation is a privately held firm in San Diego pursuing commercial mortgage and real estate acquisition. Interwest corporate offices are located in the Aventine Building at 8910 University Center Lane, Suite 580 San Diego, CA 92122. The company’s web address is www.interwestcapital.com

Interwest Capital Corp., a privately held San Diego-based commercial real estate acquisition firm, specializes in purchasing real estate assets from which most traditional investors shy away: hotels in disrepair, requiring significant capital improvements, property loans that cannot be repaid, vacant office buildings in need of repositioning, and the like.

Last week, Interwest obtained the deed for the Galleria Park Hotel in San Francisco, which it purchased out of bankruptcy in January from the San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC. According to Interwest’s president, Karl Coleman, this is one of the firm’s most complicated and interesting transactions to date.

The firm has been operating for only about 18 months and has already acquired roughly $100 million in assets, ranging from loans ? performing and non performing? to straight property acquisitions. According to Coleman, the plan is for Interwest to acquire $100 million in the next 12 months. Interwest typically targets assets ranging from $15 million to $50 million.

Across the country, commercial real estate markets are becoming prime targets for acquirers seeking ?distressed assets? ? a trend that Interwest is perfectly positioned to capitalize on.

Coleman said it’s because the industry is in an interesting part of the real estate cycle. The securitized debt market for commercial real estate has existed for only about 10 years. Since commercial loans have normally been written with 10-year terms, Coleman said the market for acquiring such loans is heating up.

?A lot of debt is starting to roll right now out of securitization,? he said. ?And there is a general sense that there might be some refinance risk with the amount of properties that need to refinance in a rising interest rate environment.?

Besides the hotel acquisition, Coleman said Interwest is looking at opportunities in Phoenix, including office buildings with high vacancy rates and residential land development opportunities.

Last year, Interwest purchased a 6-acre parcel in the Scripps Ranch/Poway area of San Diego, where it is now planning to build a 120,000-square-foot speculative office building.

Coleman, a one-time vice president of San Diego-based First Commercial Corp., and his partner, Alex Roudi, who is the founder of San Diego-based Coverall North America, generated the idea for Interwest about two years ago. Since its inception in late 2003, the Interwest team has grown to include a half-dozen analysts, according to Coleman.
By HEATHER BERGMAN
SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF

Interwest’s newest project involves the purchase of a $13 million non performing loan (at a discount), which is secured by a 177-room boutique hotel ? the Galleria Park at 191 Sutter St. in San Francisco’s Financial District. Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, which owned the historic hotel since 1986, had not paid the loan in more than a year when it matured in 2003 and was unable to refinance the loan.

The acquisition of the note marked Interwest’s first hotel acquisition, according to Coleman. It is also notable because it is a true distressed turnaround play: ?the kind of opportunity we look for with a good asset in a good location, just in need of new capital and new management,? said Coleman.

He said the Galleria Park, built in 1910, is also a property of note because ?it’s a great building, with great bones to it; it just needs a little help.?

?But we see the opportunity to restore it to its full potential,? Coleman added.

The Galleria Park was considered distressed because, according to Coleman, it was 10 years overdue for a major renovation and was severely impacted in 2001 by the bursting of the dot-com and telecom bubbles in San Francisco.

Coleman said Interwest expects to hold the asset for about three years, until it is fully stabilized, in line with the firm’s overall strategy of holding an asset for two to four years. In the meantime, major renovations are scheduled to begin this winter, with completion expected in March.