Countrywide CRF'sBoyd Fellows

How does a residential lender break into the commercial market? Ask the folks at Countrywide Financial, the Calabasas, CA-based residential originator/securitizer, and they’ll tell you to get the right team. That’s exactly what they did when they piped aboard the folks at Sausalito-based Coastal Capital and launched, in April of this year, Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance. Of course, Coastal’s management team, Boyd Fellows and partners Chris Tokarski, Stewart Ward and Warren de Haan—-who have been together on and off and in one venue or another since the late 1980s (most notably at Nomura in its heyday)–weren’t the only assets the lender started with. You also have to consider the firm’s residential track record, which includes $237 billion in production in the first eight months of 2004 alone. In late August, EVP Fellows spoke exclusively with GlobeSt.com about the progress made so far . . . and what lies ahead.

GlobeSt.com: By this time next year, where do you expect CRF to be?

Fellows: We expect to close roughly $150 million in loans in October and to achieve a comparable flow in November and December. Our goal next year is to be in the Top 10 in CMBS, which means we should do a little north of $2 billion.