© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(Oct. 24) – Porter Hedges recently announced that it strengthened its real estate and real estate finance sections with the addition of George Craft, Jr. as a partner in Houston.
Craft says Porter Hedges is the “ideal firm” to build his practice.
“The firm’s Houston-based operation and depth across virtually all areas of the law is extremely beneficial to my clients and their varying legal needs,” he said.
The University of Houston Law Center graduate focuses his practice on representing institutional lenders on a variety of real estate loan transactions, including origination of mortgage and construction loans, syndications, participations, loan sales and acquisitions.
Before pursuing his legal career, Craft worked as a credit analyst and as an officer specializing in commercial real estate lending with a national bank. He says those experiences proved to be “very beneficial” during the first few years of his law practice.
“It provided me with a working knowledge of how transactions were structured and many of the major issues to be aware of,” he said.
“Given that I’ve been in my clients’ position as a lender, I understand their need to keep their borrowers happy and get deals across the finish line while also protecting the interests of the client.”
Craft says that most of the deals that have come across his desk over the past few years have had one or more unique aspects – such as an ownership structure involving sub-ground leases, organizational structures involving pension funds and private equity firms or tax incentives with municipalities – because “it seems like all of the cookie-cutter real estate finance projects have been completed.”
One hot topic for institutional lenders in the construction lending space is the developments in High Volatility Commercial Real Estate Lending (HVCRE) issues, Craft says.
“It’s no surprise that any institutional real estate lender with a presence in the Houston market is closely tracking developments relating to oil prices, given the negative impact that the slump has had on the Houston commercial real estate market in general and office vacancy rates in particular,” he said.
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