Kennedy’s First Deal in the Western Pacific a Testament to Skill & Determination

Hackensack, NJ, January 05, 2007 – Seascape Development, LLC owned five undeveloped parcels, a little over 50 acres, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the city of Kailua-Kona. It was prime property, about a mile and a half east of the Kaahumanuy Highway (SR 19) at the Kona International Airport entrance. And John Stevens of Seascape had plans for that property, including a possible mixed-use development of residential and retail space, a residential-only development, or any number of others. He wasn’t certain of his final direction, but the land was in an idyllic setting, and he was fairly sure that virtually anything would be successful. The only impediment to his plans was his need for a loan, and even Alan realized it might take some doing. Who he was going to find capable of pulling it off was something he didn’t know at the time.

And then he was introduced to Kennedy Funding who, as it turned out, was the perfect choice for the job.

Kennedy Funding is a direct private lender headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey. And they’re a lender with a difference. Kennedy is the industry’s leading situational lender, specializing in speed, creativity and, most importantly to John Stevens, raw land loans. Kennedy looks at each loan on a case-by-case basis and decides if the loan is viable based on the collateral’s own merits. “In that regard, we’re very different from a bank,” said Jeffrey Wolfer, President and Co-CEO of Kennedy Funding. “Banks and other traditional lenders use a cookie-cutter approach. If your loan doesn’t fall within one of their patterns, it simply doesn’t get done. But our approach is to use all our expertise and experience and, if at all possible, make the deal happen.” In the case of Seascape Development, there was quite a lot to do in order to reach that point. “We put together an impressive, complicated collateral package to get the loan,” continued Wolfer. “It involved several different pieces of Seascape property as collateral. Not to mention a considerable amount of flexibility and creativity which, frankly, I don’t think anyone else could have even touched, let alone concluded. But we made the loan, for $14.5 million, and we did it fairly quickly. Not bad for our first Hawaiian deal.”

John Stevens agreed with Wolfer’s assessment. “Jeffrey Wolfer and Jon Hornik were great,” he said, “as were all of Kennedy’s people. It was quite a complicated job, and they worked very hard to make it happen, every step of the way. I don’t think anyone else could have done it, and I’m glad they were the ones we picked. We’re all relieved it’s finished, and we’re all thankful that Kennedy knew what to do.”

Kennedy Funding can issue loan commitments in as little as 24 hours, which often leads to closings in as few as five days and, in some cases when time is critical, even less. Available financing ranges from $1 million to over $100 million, with rates as low as 9% and three points. The staff at Kennedy Funding is skilled in a wide range of business sectors beyond financing, and focuses an impressive amount of expertise, experience, and dedication on each loan request.

While specializing in commercial real estate bridge loans, Kennedy’s flexibility and diversity has also produced loans for a wide range of enterprises, including amusement parks, high-profile golf courses, TV and radio stations, airlines, even sports complexes. Throughout the world, Kennedy has delivered funds for conventional and unconventional projects, often succeeding where other financial institutions cannot or will not. Kennedy can fund up to 75% loan-to-value for commercial land development, acquisitions, workouts, refinancing, bankruptcies, and foreclosures.