With a record amount of commercial real-estate debt coming due, some of the country's biggest property developers have become the latest to go hat-in-hand to the government for assistance.
They're warning policymakers that thousands of office complexes, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial buildings are headed into defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcies. The reason: according to research firm Foresight Analytics LCC, $530 billion of commercial mortgages will be coming due for refinancing in the next three years -- with about $160 billion maturing in the next year. Credit, meanwhile, is practically nonexistent and cash flows from commercial property are siphoning off.
Comments: With these bankruptcies coming, the unemployed will be in the 100's of thousands. Of course they will ask for handouts and with that comes the huge increase of massive debts that devalues the dollar even more. Gold and Silver is your only option to preserve wealth with the coming collapse of this economy! Most of these buyers of commercial buildings bought without any money down. They secure leases then ask for mortgages. Now with this collapse coming they are asking for more free money?
Flying J files for bankruptcy
Cash crisis » Company cites falling oil prices, credit crunch
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 12/22/2008 12:34:55 PM MST
Flying J. Inc., which operates 250 travel plazas and fuel stations across the country, on Monday filed for bankruptcy, citing a cash shortage brought on by plummeting oil prices and problems getting credit.
The Ogden-based company filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Flying J said all its operations will remain open as the company restructures.
The company is seeking protection from creditors after facing "an unprecedented combination of factors," said J. Phillip Adams, Flying J CEO and president.
He cited a precipitous drop in the price of crude oil and a lack of available financing from its usual lending sources.
"With this sudden and unanticipated inability to meet our liquidity needs, we regret we had no other choice than a Chapter 11 filing to enable us to stabilize our financial base," Adams said.
Flying J is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. Sales exceeded $16 billion in 2007.
What do you expect if a popsicle on a stick shop rents a mall space for megabucks a month and hires 15 teenagers to run it? What do you expect if a developer puts up an 80 space mall BEFORE getting any committments from retailers to rent them? What do you expect if people like this buy commercial with NO investment of their own money? Why is this article of shock to anyone who has an eight grade education and access to a $9.95 Texas Insturments hand held calculator?
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