Is this a good time to enter the seniors housing and care lending market, or a bad time, since we are not out of the woods yet? One reason for it being a good time is that there are no bad loans on the books for a new lender, as opposed to everyone else that went through the pandemic census crisis. Another reason is that demand for financing will only grow in the years to come.
This is what Matt Huber and Signature Bank are thinking with their new nine-person healthcare banking and finance team. The New York City-based bank is publicly traded with $121 billion of assets, but until now had no presence in the healthcare and seniors housing market. That is about to change.
Huber is the Managing Director of the team and has already brought in several seasoned bankers to help him grow the business. And grow is what they expect to do, with a goal of putting $1.0 billion on the books in the first 12 months. About 75% of that is expected to be in seniors housing and care and the rest in health care. Most recently, Huber was Market Manager for health care at People’s United Bank until it was purchased by M&T Bank. Joining him from People’s Bank are Walter Unangst, Ken Jamison, Patricia Quint, Ryan Zyskowski, Liam Ryan and Kristin Maier. Also joining the team from other banks are Doreen Schafer and Eric Halpern. A key member is expected to join in June.
They will do construction loans, bridge to agency and other types with loan amounts maxing out at $100 million on their books, with terms out to 10 years and 30-year amortizations. In addition, they will serve for-profit and not-for-profit borrowers. Of course, we will be reporting on their progress, and we wish them well.
