Shuttering of conduit lender signals Credit Suisse’s temporary departure from the commercial real estate sector
By Jerry Ascierto
Column Financial, the commercial real estate lending arm of Credit Suisse, officially closed its doors in late March, shutting down its remaining offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
At its peak, the franchise was one of the most prolific conduit lenders in the business and employed more than 370 people. The shutdown means that Credit Suisse is temporarily out of the commercial real estate game, as the company puts the Column Financial brand in mothballs until the debt markets stabilize.
In late January, Column Guaranteed, the agency lending arm of Column Financial, merged with Walker & Dunlop. The remaining Column Financial employees had planned to keep the franchise alive by continuing to do agency business through the Walker & Dunlop joint venture while trying to raise a debt fund.
But the debt fund could not be raised quickly enough, leading Credit Suisse leadership to shut down the franchise. “It’s closed for now, but they will use that franchise name again, subject to market conditions and subject to their ability to raise the debt funds,” says Vic Clark, who closed the first few loans Column ever did as well as the first loan under the Walker & Dunlop joint venture.
Clark, John Luka, and Anand Kapadia, the franchise’s top producers for more than a decade, were retained to keep Column Financial alive until it closed its doors. It was Clark, in fact, who announced the franchise’s closing through an e-mail sent to colleagues on March 30.
