By AFRO Staff
(March 17, 2009) - Four Washington area firms are partnering to form a distressed asset consultancy called Distressed Asset Recovery Team, the {Washington Business Journal} reported. The four companies are Beers and Cutler, Delta Associates, Fore Consulting and BlackwellAdvisors.
The companies will still maintain their separate operations; DART will be a stand alone endeavor that leverages the principals’ skills and client contacts, Kevin Smith, founder and president of Blackwell Advisors, said in an interview with globest.com. DART will offer debt restructuring services, investment advisory services, valuation services, litigation and dispute resolution services and disposition services.
Principals from the four firms created DART because they realized they have complimentary skills--as well as a large number of borrower and lender clients that either have or will have distressed CRE assets, Greg Leisch, CEO of Delta Associates, said in an interview.
Although he declined to discuss client specifics, he said DART will be national in scope, although most client will probably be based in the District area.
DC has survived relatively unscathed from the credit crunch and recession thus far--and will likely recover sooner than most markets, Leisch says. But there are definitely rocky times in store for the market: Leisch estimates that the DC area will see $1 billion in commercial real estate defaults by the end of Q1, primarily by developers that were unable to refinance.