The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International commends the U.S. Treasury for taking decisive action to restore liquidity to the financial system and create a functioning credit market for commercial real estate. Last week, Treasury Secretary Thomas Geithner announced a plan to unlock the nation’s frozen credit markets that includes expanding the Fed’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to include newly originated AAA commercial real estate securities.
The Treasury’s new plan is a significant and positive step that will thwart potential mass foreclosures in the commercial real estate industry that many experts fear. In a letter BOMA sent in collaboration with 11 other national real estate organizations to the Treasury last November, it was estimated that more than $400 billion of secured and unsecured debt will mature before the end of 2009. The strategy will go a long way to foil the widespread detrimental effects on local communities that would have resulted without the plan.
“We congratulate Treasury Secretary Geithner on a productive first step in office that will help prevent a further tailspin in our economy,” stated BOMA International Chair and Chief Elected Officer Richard D. Purtell, portfolio manager, Grubb & Ellis Management Services, Inc. “BOMA looks forward to working further with the Treasury, the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders to develop strategies to bring about full economic recovery.”
BOMA International has been responding to the credit crisis since it began, advocating for policymakers to enact measures to energize credit markets, restore bank lending capacity, support American businesses, create jobs, and restore the economy. In July, Purtell testified before Congress on the ramifications of the credit crunch, emphasizing the importance of credit availability to the commercial real estate sector. Since then, BOMA has consistently urged policy leaders to recognize commercial real estate’s contribution to the local tax base, the central role the industry plays in job creation and the benefits of a healthy real estate industry to the overall economy.
