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Oceancrest Advisory Services, LLC (“Oceancrest”), located in Wilmington, is a commercial real estate advisory firm offering a host of products and services that enable our clients to minimize risk and maximize investor returns. Our mission is to provide a level of service that exceeds the expectations of our clients through a strategic partnership.
John Lennon has a diverse background in the real estate industry with more than eighteen years of experience in property management, brokerage, asset management and real estate investment banking. As the managing partner for Oceancrest Advisory Services, John is responsible for business development and the oversight of developing strategic relationships throughout the industry.
In his role as an Asset Manager with Insignia Financial Group, one of the country's largest owner/operators of apartment and office properties, John was responsible for the firm's investment in the "B Piece" of REMIC 1 (SASCO,1992-M1) and oversaw the portfolio's watchlist, worked out defaulted or struggling assets in the portfolio and approved additional distributions. These efforts resulted in repositioning the firm's investment and allowing it to be resold at considerable profit. Additionally he served as the Asset Manager for Insignia's investment in Fresh Meadows, a 3,300 unit apartment property in Queens, N.Y. which was acquired in 1997 for $175,000,000. In that capacity John coordinated union labor negotiations, management restructuring and helped implement numerous operating efficiencies. John also served as Insignia's Asset Manager for its joint venture with Prudential Real Estate Investors, handling a portfolio of class A apartments, purchased by PREI on behalf of its pension fund clients, throughout the Mid-West region.
Having also worked in the investment banking side of our industry with First Union's Structured Finance Group, John has structured numerous debt and equity transactions from the lenders side. His responsibilities included due diligence and overall portfolio management with an eye toward risk mitigation and partner oversight. He was involved in the Structured Finance Group's first ever equity deal and provided development oversight throughout the project, a multi-family development in San Antonio, TX. As the Asset Manager for the group he interacted regularly with borrowers and insured compliance with complex, structured loan terms including cash flow participation deals and stringent reporting requirements.
While with Oceancrest, John has spearheaded several projects including the due diligence and collateral evaluation of a $120,000,000 pool of restaurant franchise loans. Retained by the Master Servicer, Oceancrest was on-site within five days of the initial contact and charged with the task of evaluating the individual loans and subsequently stratifying the data in order to position the pool for sale in the secondary market. In another assignment, Oceancrest was retained to complete due diligence on behalf of a major financial institution that was serving as the General Partner in a number of limited partnerships created in the 1970s for the purchase of elderly Section 8 properties throughout the Northeast. The assignment included in-depth research and negotiation with HUD and numerous state housing authorities.
John is an active member in the Wilmington community, serving on the Wilmington International Airport Authority, the Mayor's Convention Center Task Force, and the Cape Fear Council of the Boy Scouts of America Executive Board. He is the Past President of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors Commercial Alliance and a former Trustee of the First Baptist Church of Wilmington. He resides in Wilmington with his wife and three children. John is also licensed to conduct real estate transactions in South Carolina.
Susan M. Keelin, J.D. is a Senior Vice President of Oceancrest Advisory Services. Her seventeen years of experience in the real estate industry include the practice of law, commercial real estate brokerage, mediation and facilitation services for stakeholders in real estate projects, and management of a multi-million dollar commercial development project.
As an associate and then partner in a prestigious Wilmington law firm, Susan gained vast real estate experience representing clients ranging from builders and developers to business owners and homeowner associations. She has more than a decade of experience representing clients before local and state government agencies and boards, presenting developers with permitting and other land use entitlements, corporate documentation, title issues, and like kind exchanges. She has worked with commercial mortgage brokers, real estate management companies and lender's counsel and has acted as borrower's counsel on numerous transactions. Her experience includes litigation as well as transactional work.
As a real estate broker with a national law firm, Susan has acted as agent for both sellers and buyers in commercial transactions, including land, office, retail and industrial markets. Susan has also acted as broker-in-charge for a real estate company responsible for the asset management functions of the diverse portfolio of a high net-worth individual.
As the managing director of a golf course construction project, Susan consulted regularly with project engineers, architects, builders, appraisers, marketing professionals, and adjacent property owners.
In her capacity as a certified mediator and facilitator, Susan has provided services through the North Carolina Superior Court mandatory mediation program and has facilitated stakeholder meetings for local government agencies and for developers and adjacent property owners.
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Lou Steele brings a wealth of real estate, asset management and workout experience to Oceancrest Advisory Services. Previously, he was one of two founding principals of Prudential CRES Commercial Real Estate in Kansas City, MO for nearly 20 years, during which time he served as a member of the Prudential CRES National Advisory Council and as President of the National Association of Produce Market Managers. The company dedicated itself to providing clients with professional, personalized service of the highest ethical standard in order to establish long-term business relationships and was a leader in investment sales and leasing of office, retail, self storage, multifamily, and industrial properties. The firm was a four time winner of the prestigious Pinnacle Award recognizing the top 10 Prudential affiliates in the US and Canada.
During the fallout from the 1986 Tax Act and the ensuing Savings and Loan crisis, Lou led one of the Midwest's most successful workout teams. He also served as Vice President of the Kansas City Workout Professionals Association. Past workout clients include J.P. Morgan Chase, Lennar, Morgan Stanley, Ford Motor Credit, Central Life Assurance, Bank of America, Equity Office, LaSalle Bank, GMAC, Chrysler Credit and Chemical Bank.
Lou sold his stake in Prudential CRES in 2007 to pursue his interest in providing real estate investment services on a global basis. In the international arena, his focus has been on capital formation from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar to invest in real estate in emerging markets. He has also provided real estate consulting services to investors from the GCC. Lou provides a wide range of real estate services to clients and pursues real estate opportunities, both nationally and globally, through SGCC, LLC, which he formed in 2008. He is also a principal of Wilmot & Steele, a family-owned MO farming corporation.
Lou assumed his responsibilities as Senior Vice President with Oceancrest in January of 2009 after working closely with them on a portfolio of troubled retail centers in and around the Kansas City area. In this capacity, he will be responsible for Oceancrest's Midwest operations as well as the growth of its special servicing and asset management services. Lou is licensed in MO & KS. He has been civically active in Greater Kansas City serving on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Council, River Market Business Association, Urban Core Central Business Transit Planning Team, Old Westport Business Association, and Westport Tomorrow. He resides in Kansas City with his wife and has two adult daughters. He has traveled to over 70 countries.
John Allen is a Senior Vice President of Oceancrest Advisory Services. John has over twenty-five years experience in the real estate industry. He has a strong background in appraisal, project management, development, due diligence, acquisitions and dispositions, consulting, and brokerage services.
Prior to affiliating with Oceancrest, John was a managing partner with Redtail Properties, LLC, a Cary based acquisition and development company. His primary role was contract negotiation, due diligence, and project management, with a focus on strategically located apartment developments. John's most recent project was a 216 unit, $21MM development where he provided contract negotiation, entitlement acquisition, planning, design and pre-development project management.
With his real estate appraisal and consulting background, John has worked extensively with financial institutions, attorneys, developers, corporations, as well as private individuals. He has provided expert witness testimony in numerous court cases in North Carolina and Florida.
John spent two years as a Special Acquisition and Disposition Agent for Progress Energy Carolinas. During this time, he identified Progress Energy's excess land pool and made recommendations for disposition of the unnecessary land. He also identified and contracted land on their behalf for plant expansion in areas throughout North Carolina.
John has previously volunteered his services to many organizations including youth soccer and baseball coaching. He served on the Board of Directors for both the Raleigh Swim Association and Lochmere Swim & Tennis Club, and worked on behalf of the Leadership Cary Chamber. In addition, John participates in Ironman Triathlon races and recently completed Ironman Hawaii.
Lynn DelGaudio has wide-ranging real estate consulting experience serving corporations, financial institutions, individual investors, pension funds, developers and public entities. Her background includes expertise in real estate valuation, investment analysis, market research, strategic planning, acquisition/disposition due diligence, capital budgeting, residential sale & marketing, and feasibility analysis. Lynn has been in the real estate industry for over 20 years, and she has worked extensively throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
As a Consulting Manager for Ernst & Young, Lynn provided advisory services throughout North America leading the Hospitality Services Group for the San Francisco office. During one of her engagements in Mexico City, she worked with a number of the country's largest financial institutions, performing due diligence and valuation services for portfolios ranging from 80 to 400 assets. This analysis required the development of financial models in Spanish and English, including conversion from the U.S. dollar to the Mexican peso at forecasted Mexican exchange and inflation rates. In addition to her consulting experience, Ms. DelGaudio spent two years at Stanford University, where she assisted in the development and management of the University's $2.1 billion, multi-year capital plan, managed a $10 million facilities reserve budget, and developed a multi-year debt forecast for a $1.6 billion construction plan. Before joining Oceancrest Advisory Services, Lynn provided appraisal services in upstate New York, relative to a broad variety of property types, including: hotel/resort, industrial, office, residential, cell tower, railroad, museum and retail.
Lynn’s most recent work is focused on assisting banks in a number of areas relative to the proper resolution of special assets or troubled debt. These responsibilities include assessing probability, timing and magnitude of potential loan losses and developing strategies for restructuring loans and loan portfolios utilizing creative approaches that involve both borrower and lender. Lynn holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting with distinction from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is fluent in Spanish.
Denise McGarry joined Oceancrest Real Estate Advisory Services in 2010, bringing a diverse range of experience to the team. She began her real estate/ capital markets career as an Underwriter with JPMorgan's CMBS group ensuring that all loans complied with the Bank’s guidelines while also focusing on enhanced profitability related to the back-end securitization structure. In 2003, Denise joined Royal Bank of Canada's US CMBS group in Atlanta, where the original goal was to create a US CMBS platform with the later focus shifted to buying small community banks in the southeast and understanding their respective CRE portfolios.
Since that time, Denise has worked in New York as a Director with Fitch Ratings in their Structured Finance/ CMBS Group where she managed new issuance ratings for CMBS bond transactions averaging $3 billion, with a small mezzanine lender that marketed debt options on properties valued between $2MM and $80MM, and more recently worked with The Situs Companies primarily involving specially serviced real estate assets.
Denise's undergraduate education is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and she earned her MBA from the University of Georgia. She also obtained her CCIM real estate designation in 2000. Currently, Denise resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Melissa Cooper Jackson joined Oceancrest in 2010. At Oceancrest, Melissa is responsible for managing and conducting client loan/REO sales and interacting with investors interested in purchasing these assets. She also provides data organization and aggregation services for Oceancrest's clients to assist with a wide variety of reporting functions.
Melissa has been involved in the real estate industry since 2001. She provides commercial loan underwriting, troubled loan workouts, CMBS loan assumption analysis, investment feasibility analysis, due diligence, risk mitigation, and other related consulting services for a wide variety of customers in the real estate industry.
As a real estate broker, Melissa has represented both buyers and sellers in personal and investment-grade transactions. She is licensed to conduct real estate transactions in North Carolina and has maintained her broker-in-charge license since 2006.
She has performed investment management services for a portfolio of real estate properties in the greater Charlotte, NC area. In her capacity as the managing member, Melissa is responsible for overseeing the analysis, acquisition, development, management and subsequent disposition of the assets.
From 1998 – 2005, Melissa was a founding member of and had ownership interest in Corporate Information Technologies (CIT), a computer networking firm based in Charlotte, NC. At CIT, she was responsible for growing and stabilizing the financial and business operations of the start-up. By 2005, she sold her ownership interest in the company to more actively pursue her interest real estate investments.
Melissa holds Bachelor of Science Degrees in Small Business Management, Finance, and Business Law from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Anthony S. Allen has assisted in analyzing numerous property types for a multitude of clients, ranging from individual private investors to large financial institutions. His broad-based knowledge of the real estate industry, combined with his analytical and goal-directed skills, add significant value to our clients.
Anthony was part of a team that provided on site due diligence and lease analysis of a thirteen asset portfolio, for a publicly traded student housing REIT valued at $244.3 million. Additionally, he provided on-going, value-added, investment management for an equity portfolio of 25 investments and 37 assets throughout the country, entailing various property types.
Currently he asset manages on behalf of a community bank, a foreclosed residential community, of which is one of their largest real estate loans. The development is comprised of 100+ single family lots, a multi-million dollar club house and recreational center and 12 partially completed single family homes.
Anthony received an undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he was inducted into the Cameron Executive Network. As well, he is a licensed North Carolina Real Estate Broker.
John Gavigan joined Oceancrest Real Estate Advisory Services as a Financial Analyst in August 2010. He assists with due diligence, underwriting, asset management, monthly financial analysis, and market research. In addition, he assists in the creation of innovative marketing strategies and materials for all of Oceancrest's comprehensive business lines, enhancing new business development for all of our clients commercial real estate needs.
As an undergraduate, John interned for CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) in Columbia, SC, where he evaluated the industrial, office, and retail markets, managed the CBRE research database, and provided assistance to the brokers.
John also worked with Chartwell Holdings, located in Charleston, SC, where he performed underwriting, analysis, and on-site due diligence on an array of multi-family properties around the Southeast. He assisted with the purchase and management turnover of a 500+ unit multifamily asset in Atlanta, GA, which included a 20 unit rehabilitation project.
John graduated Cum Laude from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, with a double-major in Finance and Real Estate.
Prior to starting her own accounting/consulting company in 2004, Allison spent six years in public and private accounting. Her background includes overseeing audit and consulting engagements for four major healthcare systems, eleven hospitals, a large commercial real estate developer and numerous non-profits in the Southeast while working for, at the time, a "Big 6" accounting firm. She was also the Accounting Manager of an SEC corporation coordinating the internal financial reporting and budgeting process.
Allison is well founded with her BSBA and Masters of Accounting from UNC-Chapel Hill and has returned to her alma mater as well as eight other universities as a guest speaker. Her expertise includes forecasting, budgeting, financial reporting and analysis.