A visit to the Fed reveals eye-opening realities for hotels
I recently attended a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that focused on issues confronting commercial real estate. While it gave me an opportunity to speak directly to the banking community about some of the financing problems in the lodging sector, I found the session fascinating for several reasons. While STR focuses primarily on hotels and the economic trends that affect travel, hearing about problems confronting other types of commercial real estate was enlightening. The first number that got everyone’s attention was the $1.5 trillion estimate of debt maturities on CRE during the next 18 to 24 months. The big question is where does the money needed to refinance these maturities come from? If banks aren’t lending much money to CRE at this point, why would they start lending as this debt comes due?
