Profiles of local brokers and other dealmakers in commercial real estate still making a go of it despite the down market:
LEWIS FELDMAN
, 53
Managing Partner/L.A. Chair
Goodwin Procter LLP, Century City
A partner in the law firm’s business law department, specializing in real estate capital, Feldman keeps active on both sides of the market: pushing through deals and helping lenders take back projects from failing developers.
Notable Recent Deal: Emerson College’s $85 million Hollywood Campus. This is an ongoing transaction that involves establishing and building a Thomas Mayne-designed entertainment education campus.
Tough Recent Deal: The foreclosure of the Chinatown Blossom Plaza project in downtown Los Angeles for Prime Property Fund II. (A fully entitled mixed-use development in Chinatown.) When the developer failed to obtain necessary financing and then declared bankruptcy, we successfully defeated the bankruptcy and obtained the property for the client. The good news is that the project will move forward as credit markets stabilize.
Secret of Success: I do my best to be a true counselor, a consigliere and an accomplished technician. Although references to the Mafia are probably risky to make, I still admire Robert Duvall’s character, Tom Hagen, in “The Godfather.”
Sage Advice: I focus on Winston Churchill’s simple statement during the bombing of London by the Nazis: “Never give up. Never, ever give up.”
Recession’s Silver Lining: I think that our professional services and investment banking communities became more bloated than Moby Dick at an all-you-can-eat fish buffet at the Vegas Venetian. As people became wealthy, they became arrogant and actually believed their own bullshit.
Stress Release: I hang with my 11-year-old identical twin boys, and we fish and camp. We just came back from a week of fishing on the Kenai River in Southwest Alaska.
Recent Splurge: Our family is pretty conservative that way. I have young kids, college tuition in the future, parents and in-laws to be mindful of, and my plastic surgery savings account to fund as I begin to look more and more like a shar pei.
