Will regulatory changes turn U.S. banks into real estate developers?
By Curt Hazlett The federal agency that regulates the banking industry has allowed two large banks to get more involved in real estate development, a move observers say has implications for retail developers. Without fanfare, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) posted some interpretive letters on its Web site in December in which it approved requests by the banks to develop commercial properties near their headquarters. The documents did not name the banks, but analysts later identified them as PNC Financial Services Group and Bank of America, based on details in the documents, together with facts already in the public domain. PNC will build a mixed-use project next to its Pittsburgh offices that includes ground-level retail, a hotel, office space and condominiums, while Bank of America is planning a 15-story Ritz-Carlton hotel on its property in Charlotte, N.C. All of this relaxes a long-standing rule that prohibits banks from owning and developing commercial propertie
