Wachovia Bank Real Estate Executive Starts New Venture

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Steve Russo, a former Managing
Director and Florida Regional Executive of Real Estate at Wachovia Bank,
announced the founding of The CREF Group, a real estate advisory and
investment group. The CREF Group will work with real estate developers,
investors, and financial institutions with interests in Commercial and
Multi-unit residential real estate to assist them with financial
restructurings, modifications, debt renewals, equity raises, acquisitions, and
dispositions. Mr. Russo brings diverse capabilities and an extensive
background in real estate and finance to the newly created company. Recently
he was Managing Director and Regional Executive for all commercial and
multi-unit residential lending in Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America
for Wachovia Bank. While at Wachovia Bank, Mr. Russo oversaw a multi-billion
dollar real estate loan portfolio as well as production of fixed and floating
rate CMBS, construction lending, bridge loans, mezzanine loans, preferred
equity, and agency debt.

"Previous clients have called asking for help in restructuring securitized and
balance sheet/portfolio commercial real estate loans. There is a real need for
value-added restructuring services. The problems are not going away anytime
soon so we need to find solutions that work for all parties sooner rather than
later. Sticking your head in the sand is not a strategy for any party
involved," Mr. Russo said. "I was approached by a number of longtime clients
that want to preserve their assets and realize the value that relationships
have in this business, even in this part of the cycle. We are having success
and finding more flexibility in the restructurings than most people think is
available." The CREF Group has already had success at restructuring a
$40,000,000 CMBS loan in Palm Beach County, Florida and has been engaged for
several other assignments ranging from multifamily construction loans to
repositioning office buildings. Mr. Russo is founding The CREF Group after
leaving Wachovia Bank and its predecessor First Union National Bank, where he
spent the past 15 years and most recently managed the company's Florida,
Caribbean, and Latin America commercial multi-unit residential real estate
lending operation, the largest bank South Florida Commercial real estate
lender according to the South Florida Business Journal 2009 Book of Lists. Mr.
Russo's extensive expertise is in recourse and non-recourse construction debt,
syndications, participations, portfolio structured finance debt, preferred
equity, joint ventures, mezzanine debt, fixed-rate CMBS, floating rate CMBS,
loan servicing and GSE agency debt.

Mr. Russo is also a founding principal of Cynergie Group LLC, a company that
assists financial institutions maximize their return on their distressed
assets.

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an
interview with Steve Russo, please call 954-873-3250 or email
srusso@crefgroup.com

Website: http://www.crefgroup.com

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit
http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE The CREF Group

Steve Russo of The CREF Group, +1-954-873-3250, srusso@crefgroup.com