Atlanta Banking Icon Retires Amid Diversified Lending Environment

Kathy Farrell will replace the longtime banking executive in August.

ATLANTA—After nearly 10 years with SunTrust Banks and 40 years in real estate banking and advisory, Walt Mercer is retiring. Kathy Farrell will replace him as head of the bank’s Commercial Real Estate line of business effective August 1. Farrell will be responsible for delivering banking and capital markets solutions to commercial real estate developers and investors bank’s commercial real estate lines of business, including: regional real estate, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT), institutional real estate , affordable housing , and residential builders. Farrell will report to Mark Chancy , SunTrust Wholesale Banking executive. “As we enter the next phase in growing our co mmercial real estate business, Kathy’s extensive background will be a significant benefit to our clients, shareholders, and communities,” says Chancy. “Walt’s expertise in leading this business was instrumental over the last 10 years and we wish him well as he retires at the end of 2016.” Farrell has over 25 years of real estate finance and banking experience, including: origination, underwriting, capital markets, work out strategies, and risk management. She has been with SunTrust since 2013, most recently serving as the executive risk officer for commercial real estate . Farrell has also served as the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) senior credit officer, and head of the REIT Banking Group. Before joining SunTrust, Farrell was executive vice president and credit executive of commercial real estate for PNC Bank for four years, covering commercial real estate markets from northern Ohio to Texas. She also served as the managing director of debt capital markets at National City Bank for three years, where she established a real estate syndications group. Previously, she was vice president of real estate capital markets at GE Capital Corp and spent the early years of her career at Fleet Bank . Farrell graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. Farrell was not available for comment before officially assuming the role. But GlobeSt.com caught up with Joe Pella , group vice president and Georgia commercial real estate market manager for Suntrust Bank, to get some insights into the market conditions she’s stepping into. “It’s clear that Atlanta has entered the later stages of the development cycle,” Pella tells GlobeSt.com. “While market fundamentals across all asset classes remain relatively healthy, there are supply concerns, and particularly for certain multifamily developments located in the urban core. That being said, it’s uncertain exactly how late we are in the cycle and how many innings we have left.”