2024 Year in Review: Scott Levine, King & Spalding

What noteworthy transactions or deals from this year best exemplified key market trends or shifts?

We represented the seller/lender in two separate transactions where our clients sold nearly vacant office buildings in Phoenix, Arizona, and then provided seller financing to the buyers and concurrently put one loan on a repo line. The client purchased the properties several years ago in a distressed situation but was not able to turn them around. The client’s fund life was expiring and the client needed to move the assets. The buyers want to convert the properties to medical office and multi-family, respectively. The transactions exemplify buyers and sellers being creative and general activity to avoid stalled markets. 

What was your greatest professional accomplishment or most notable project, deal, or transaction in 2024?

My greatest accomplishment of 2024 was being a Swiss army knife and working with associates to make them Swiss army knives. In addition to our typical run of the mill finance and equity deals (which themselves are complex and highly structured), our deal flow includes many workouts, loan sales, loan purchases, foreclosures, conveyances-in-lieu (mortgage and mezz), bankruptcies, recapitalizations, etc. Associates in particular have not lived through a real cycle yet, and exposing them to all of these types of transactions is critical to their professional growth generally and so they can think of possible issues for new non-problematic deals.

What emerging trends will drive investment and development in 2025?

As many say, there is a lot of “dry powder” in the market and we predict that it is going to explode in 2025. The market has been extremely active in the second half of 2024; the fourth quarter in particular has seen a burst of loan originations across the board as lenders are aggressively putting out money for construction loans, bridge loans and typical refinancing, as well as distressed opportunities. We continue to see many borrowers trading-in long term extensions for free short term extensions (e.g., 45-60 days) because those borrowers either have financing or a sale lined up.