Commercial Real Estate

BayView forms finance arm
Dovetailing with an industry trend toward more in-house services, BayView Advisors has created a capital markets group to provide debt to clients.

The push by the Tampa-based self-storage industry broker comes as service firms such as CBRE Inc., JLL and others have expanded into finance as well.

“We've found there are two basic needs now in the self-storage business relative to finance: funding for new construction loans and acquisitions,” says Jay Crotty, BayView's managing partner. “We're creating a level playing field with this new group for clients.”

BayView's capital markets group will be led by Noel Cain, formerly of Chicago-based BSC Group.

The company's move into finance comes as self-storage occupancy and revenue per unit are at an all-time high, driven by increased household formations and new apartment development. By one estimate the U.S.'s top 50 metro markets need nearly 3,500 new self-storage units to meet population growth and demand.

BayView isn't the only new financier in the self-storage space, however. Chicago-based Aries Capital has begun cutting non-recourse and bridge loans.

For BayView, which was formed in 2005, the capital markets group will aid its move into the Mid-Atlantic and Indiana, Crotty says.

“It's a very dynamic time in our industry,” Crotty says. “We think we're uniquely positioned because we are 100% focused on the self-storage sector and we operate from a national platform.”

'It's 2005 all over again'
Amid the exuberance at this year's International Council of Shopping Centers' gathering in Orlando came this dose of realism from Lee Arnold, the Colliers International Tampa chief who has witnessed more than a few market cycles.

“It's like 2005 all over again,” Arnold says of the Gulf Coast's commercial real estate market. “It's kinda scary.”

Arnold explained after the confab that he worries about certain sectors in particular.

“There are sectors of concentrated building where there's a supply issue forming, mostly in restaurants and apartments and memory care facilities,” he says.

“I'm not negative on the market, and there is sound investing going on, but when cap rates go below 4%, as they are now in certain sectors, historically that means properties are fully priced.”