Ok, I know this is a very brief post, but in my defense, I’m typing slowly after a recent surgery. I the admin for a local network group on Facebook called the Amelia Island Fernandina Beach Local Network. One of the members, Andrew
Henderson, mentioned starting a bank locally with the CoFB…and I began to think. Why not try to offer financing through the OHPA and would it work? While Fernandina may never be in the same kind of position to offer this kind of partnership or set up organized lending, Google turned up a number of Port Authorities doing exactly this. It appears they level of pursuit of this kind of loan in some places is incredible. Take a look below at one source, apparently very similar to us. A friend, Brian Reaves, one of the local port commissioners, repeatedly brings up the potential to partner, offer tax incentives and the loans available….
I’d love to see this idea taken a step further…offering loans based on equity for any investment property in Nassau County. If the equity is high enough, the loan is, in my opinion, safe. If either an equity based or partnership investment with high equity loan were available, we might see a radical recovery in the local real estate market. We are in the middle of a recover already, with a drop in inventory over the same period last year. See the enclosed market condition report for Amelia Island. Notice the drop from 758 to 338 residential listings?
Even if financing isn’t offered for pure real estate investment, the OHPA is not limited to the island and pushing the lending side and partnership side is well worth our time.
The funding source comes primarily from bond financing. By virtue of the tax-exempt status with which a Port Authority is chartered, it can pass the tax breaks along to you. As an independent lender, the Port Authority employs investment bankers to conduct the underwriting and then to raise and place the debt in the open capital market.
