Sara Havlena

Havlena is the editor-in-chief of Crittenden Real Estate magazine and The Crittenden Report: Real Estate Financing, Retail Tenants Report and the Multifamily Report and their respective websites. She has been an editor with Crittenden since 2007 and worked on a variety of real estate publications during her time at the company covering a wide range of topics from restaurant expansion to real estate developers. She has been the lead reporter and editor of Crittenden’s flagship publication, The Crittenden Report, since 2011. She has a degree in Print Journalism from Cal State Fullerton, and resides in Orange County, Calif.

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  • in Latest Finance Trends, Latest Multifamily Trends, Premium

    Multifamily borrowers will see increased activity this year

    The multifamily market will be strong in 2025 with an overall pickup of available capital. There will be high demand from renters as there is a big gap between the cost of owning and renting, as well as a housing shortage in many areas. Watch for the agencies to continue to take a big chunk of the market share, especially as a lot of banks remain on the sidelines. Lenders like that multifamily properties seem to be holding their values and occupancy has been strong. More

  • in Deal of the Week, Premium

    Deal of the Week: Norterra West II in Phoenix

    Norterra West II is a 144,800-s.f. Class A office property built in 2020 that includes a parking ratio just under six spaces per 1,000 feet of rentable space. The hurdles were the building recapitalization with multiple parties in different continents coupled with lease increases and extensions all required to meet a deadline to defease a CMBS loan on a specific date. More

  • in Latest Finance Trends, Premium

    Bridge lending is starting to loosen for 2025

    Count on plenty of available bridge capital throughout the year, given market uncertainty. Bridge lenders are increasing their allocations for 2025, which will lead to more competition and looser underwriting standards. Many out-of-the-box deals, assets coming out of construction or loans needing higher leverage will have to seek bridge financing. With the gap narrowing between SOFR-based and Treasury-based lending, keep an eye out for more “bridge light” lenders to take on more risk than they usually would. Expect life companies to be more active in bridge lending this year, as well as some CMBS lenders entering the game. More

  • in Latest Finance Trends, Premium

    Equity investors are hoping to get capital out the door

    JV and pref equity investing should slowly begin to pick up this year as investors need to start moving dry powder. Since the initial rate hikes in March 2022, common equity investments from institutional groups abruptly halted, accumulating a stockpile of dry powder. Many equity investors waited for distressed opportunities and paused their JV platform to start issuing pref equity to achieve high rates of return with debt-like structures. Distressed opportunities have been fewer than the market expected, and those groups will need to deploy to non-distressed product. More

  • in Deal of the Week, Premium

    Deal of the Week: BLAK Cheyenne Industrial in Las Vegas, Nev.

    BLAK Cheyenne Industrial is a 56,000-s.f. Class A property built in 2024. This deal faced two significant challenges: The submarket is experiencing substantial expansion — with 8% of existing industrial inventory currently under construction — and the property had low in-place cash flow at the time of underwriting. RRA Capital overcame these hurdles by focusing on the property’s strong long-term potential, supported by its pro forma stabilized debt yield. The lender trusted that potential issues could be proactively mitigated by leveraging the sponsor’s deep market expertise. More

  • in Latest Finance Trends, Premium

    Bank lenders are planning a cautious comeback

    Keep an eye out for bank originations to increase in 2025 as more banks come back into the market. Strong underwriting and quality deals will be key factors in getting loans done. Even with this pick up, banks will remain selective due to elevated interest rates, regulatory scrutiny and economic uncertainty. Large money-center banks are active and offer attractive rates but with high credit/underwriting criteria, while regional and community banks are slowly re-entering the game. Some community and regional banks have delinquent loans on their books that they have been extending and pretending for more than 12 to 18 months and rates are not low enough to heal these loans just yet. More

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