What is Conseco’s bread-and-butter type of project?
The Conseco Group has a healthy mix of retail, medical, restaurant, multi-family, service and tenant build-out projects keeping us busy. In my opinion, fear is the biggest barrier. While obtaining financing is much more difficult than a year ago, it has not completely frozen. Too many prospective tenants are hesitant to make a commitment given the current unknowns of the economy and are taking a wait-and-see attitude. However, we currently have such historically low interest rates and construction costs that decision-makers should see this as an opportunity. A recent success story for us was a large office building project frozen by a lower debt-to-service ratio required by the lender. By leveraging the current economic climate and reducing construction costs, we were able to meet a more attractive ratio and make this a viable project again in a problem-solving, proactive way. What would be the one form of assistance you’d request for the commercial construction sector from the federal
