News Updates

Pembrook Acquires Five Properties in Southern California

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Pembrook Capital Management LLC has closed a $10.6 million financing package for the acquisition and rehabilitation of five properties totaling 105 units in Los Angeles. The financing was structured as a $6.2 million first mortgage loan for the acquisition of 25 units located at 14949 Roscoe Boulevard and a $4.2 million preferred equity investment for the acquisition of 825-833 East 108th Street (22 units), 6121 Crenshaw Boulevard (17 units), 6736-6800 West Boulevard (24 units) and 14924 Roscoe Boulevard (17 units), all located in Los Angeles. With the financing in place, sponsor Golden Bee Properties plans to perform $2 million of exterior and interior capital improvements, stabilize the assets and refinance with long-term fixed-rate financing. Pembrook is a real estate investment manager that provides financing throughout the capital structure. The firm has originated or participated in investments totaling over $1.4 billion since it began investing in 2007. Golden Bee Properties is an experienced owner and operator of similar properties in the greater Los Angeles area. They currently own 59 properties located in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Inglewood Van Nuys and Las Vegas.

Novel Coworking Adds New SmartSuites Floors to Minneapolis TriTech Center

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Workspace provider Novel Coworking has added two new floors of SmartSuites at the Minneapolis TriTech Center location, totaling nine new suites and 17,000-square-feet of new space. In 2019, the company debuted its SmartSuites technology-enhanced private suites, which feature a combination of private offices and collaborative open space, dedicated kitchen and conference room facilities. They also offer integrated technologies such as Alexa-enabled sound system and biometric keypad entry. The Minneapolis TriTech location will be adding two of these specific SmartSuites floors.

CoreLogic Approved to Provide Verification of Employment and Income for Fannie Mae

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CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, has been approved to provide verification of employment and income for Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) Validation Service, a component of Day 1 Certainty. Through this integration, mortgage lenders can receive both automated and manual borrower employment and income verifications from CoreLogic as part of the DU validation service. This provides lenders with automated access and rapid representations and warranties relief for validated loan components. With Fannie Mae’s approval, CoreLogic is now able to provide clients with a comprehensive suite of Day 1 Certainty borrower verification solutions. “At CoreLogic, we are laser-focused on innovating solutions to help our clients take time, touch and cost out of every origination,” said Jay Kingsley, executive, CoreLogic Credit and Borrower Solutions. “With this announcement, CoreLogic has achieved a major milestone in our growth strategy for AutomatIQ Borrower and our march toward the digital mortgage: we are now able to provide our clients with truly end-to-end verification solutions, which helps accelerate our growth and the value we deliver to clients in 2020 and beyond.”

RealPage Launches eCommerce Platform, Closes Acquisition of Buildium

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RealPage has delivered the industry’s first eCommerce platform for residents via its ActiveBuilding resident portal solution. It was designed to enhance the resident experience and drive incremental yield from amenities, spaces, services and events. A redesigned, custom-branded mobile app allows residents to make purchases and manage apartment-related needs. Residents can reserve and pay for amenities, spaces and events directly, including parking, guest suites, self-storage, clubhouses, conference rooms, yoga classes, cleaners, childcare, dog walkers and more. Property management companies earn income from assets they already have and through third-party service providers. So far, clients have monetized 25 different amenities and rentables, with guest suites and parking generating the most incremental revenue with one client reporting over $150 per unit per year in revenue lift. Property management companies can build their brand by custom-branding the app with a property’s logo, color palette and photography. This also makes it easy to provide a community’s branded resident portal to residents. Residents simply enter their community name in the app store and the custom-branded app will appear. Residents can quickly make all reservations and purchases from the app. They can also renew their leases with just a few clicks. Residents were 2-3% more likely to renew, according to beta test results. The company has also closed its acquisition of Buildium, a SaaS real estate property management solution provider with approximately 2 million units under management in the SMB market segment. “The SMB market segment represents a tremendous growth opportunity for RealPage,” Steve Winn, CEO and chairman of RealPage, said in a news release. “This is an area where technology is underutilized, and currently served by myriad point products. Buildium in concert with RealPage enables us to reach deeper into that 50 million-unit market, with a best-in-class platform backed by data science.” Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Richardson, Texas, RealPage currently serves more than 18 million units worldwide from offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

First American Ranked Among the Best Workplaces for Diversity

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First American Financial Corporation, a global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, has been recognized by Fortune and Great Place to Work as one of the 2019 Best Workplaces for Diversity for the fourth consecutive year. The ranking is based on anonymous survey responses representing more than 4.8 million employees at Great Place to Work-Certified organizations. “Earning this recognition for the fourth year in a row highlights the importance to our people of diversity and inclusion in their relationships with their fellow employees, customers and the community,” said Dennis Gilmore, CEO, First American Financial Corporation. “It reflects our philosophy of putting people first and the emphasis we place on integrity, leadership and teamwork.” According to Great Place to Work, the Best Workplaces for Diversity stand out for creating great workplaces for all employees, regardless of their personal characteristics. To determine the list, Great Place to Work analyzed the experiences of women, under-represented races/ethnicities, LGBTQ people, employees who are in the baby boomer generation or older, and people who have disabilities, comparing their survey results to their colleagues’ results at the same organizations. These anonymous survey responses on more than 60 survey questions reflecting day-to-day workplace treatment represented the work lives of more than 4.8 million employees. Earlier in 2019, also for the fourth year in a row, First American was named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list and named one of the 2019 Best Workplaces for Women. The company was also named one of the Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance for the third consecutive year. The company’s Canadian subsidiary, FCT, has been named by Great Place to Work to the “Best Workplaces in Canada—1000+ Employees” list for five consecutive years (2015-2019), and a 2018 Best Workplace in Canada for Millennials, as well as one of the Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance.

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Phoenix American Financial Services has announced a new client partnership with LaSalle Investment Management to support their new 1031 platform of products. Phoenix will support LaSalle with its advanced proprietary transfer agent system STAR-XMS, which combines advanced technology, a focus on customer service and decades of experience with the operational requirements of real estate funds and 1031 exchange funds. The STAR-XMS transfer agent system is the result of Phoenix’s direct experience as a fund sponsor as well as decades of experience as an administrator for alternative investment funds. LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $68 billion of assets in private and public real estate property and debt investments as of third quarter 2019. “LaSalle is one of the flagship names in investment management,” said Andrew Constantin, senior vice president of operations for Phoenix American. “We are very pleased that they have embraced the superior capabilities of our investor services platform and we look forward to working together.”