Park Capital Group L.L.C., a Miami-based private equity firm, has announced that it intends to place at least $1 billion in investment funding in the next 12 months, primarily in commercial real estate and primarily in the United States. CEO Matthew Kleinsmith, who founded the company about two years ago, has owned businesses in several industries, including payment processing and factoring. It was through the latter that he developed a relationship with a large hedge fund. A long-time entrepreneur, Kleinsmith told CPN that his background has a lot to do with Park\u2019s current push. Too many developers are \u201call singing the same tune: \u2018We were all set to go, and the bank pulled out on me,\u2019\u201d Kleinsmith said. \u201cI can relate to those people. I\u2019ve been in their shoes.\u201d He\u2019s estimating that 60\u201370 percent of the $1 billion will go into commercial real estate, mostly into hotels and condos, though he prefers hotels connected with resorts, not stand-alone properties, \u201cWe are tilted toward development projects right now,\u201d Kleinsmith said; current development projects include two resorts in Mexico, some condos in Florida and a retail project in the Chicago suburbs. Park\u2019s focus is its equity leveraging and asset-based lending program, he explained, and the company relies on \u201cnumerous overseas banking relationships to grow our funding base.\u201d Funds are obtained mostly from European investors, he said, who want to take advantage of the current euro-to-dollar exchange rate. The suburban Chicago retail project that Park is funding is a 50,000-square-foot strip mall in Elgin, anchored by a cybercafe. Park Capital has extended $23 million in straight debt financing on an 80 percent loan-to-value. One of the Mexican resort projects is Punta Perula, just south of Puerta Vallarta. The 24-acre development is just breaking ground and will be completed in 24 to 36 months. Park Capital is putting in $68 million. The other resort is in final negotiations, Kleinsmith said. In overseas markets, he added, \u201cwe\u2019re very interested in Vietnam\u201d and also exploring opportunities in South Africa, Panama and Costa Rica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Park Capital Group L.L.C., a Miami-based private equity firm, has announced that it intends to place at least $1 billion in investment funding in the next 12 months, primarily in commercial real estate and primarily in the United States. CEO Matthew Kleinsmith, who founded the company about two years ago, has owned businesses in several…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003847806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n