Companies not worried about Bear Stearns collapse
WMC, RoomPlace at Harlem had funding ties
Clint Engel and Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, March 21, 2008
HIGH POINT — Two industry businesses that have had ties to Bear Stearns — the investment bank that collapsed this week — say the firm’s troubles have no impact on their operations.
The World Market Center in Las Vegas announced in July 2005 that it had secured $225 million in permanent financing through Bear Stearns Commercial Mortgage to replace a first-phase construction loan.
Dana Andrew, WMC vice president of marketing and public relations said this week that Bear Stearns was behind loans for permanent financing for Buildings A and B. But they “were securitized and sold off by Bear Stearns long ago,” she said. “Bear Stearns is no longer the lender to WMC and WMC has no exposure correlated to them.”
The loan for Building C, on schedule to open for the July Las Vegas Market, is from HypoVereinsbank, she said.
Also in 2005, Lombard, Ill.,-based Harlem Furniture, now The RoomPlace at Harlem Furniture, announced that three private equity firms had teamed up with Harlem CEO Bruce Berman to acquire the Top 100 company.
One of the firms is Bear Growth Capital Partners, an arm of Bear Stearns.
Harlem Chief Operating Officer Geoff Maxwell said, “We’re very comfortable (Bear Stearns’ collapse) doesn’t affect our growth plans, and the Bear Growth Capital Partners team remains a strong support to the company.”
RoomPlace recently entered the Indianapolis market with two stores and has plans for another there within a year.
Bear Stearns, entangled in the subprime mortgage meltdown and the credit crisis, is expected to be sold J.P. Morgan Chase at a fire-sale price of $2 a share. The deal, brokered by the federal government, saved the firm from filing for bankruptcy, according to news reports.
-
RoomPlace, WMC unfazed by Bear Stearns troubles
Mar 30, 2008
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
