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NEW YORK CITY – Built, a construction finance technology platform, is taking aim at the pain points in construction lending, continually adding features to help streamline the process. To accomplish this goal the firm has brought on commercial lender executive Jim Fraser to help with the task.
Fraser, who was an early adopter of Built while at Banc of California, tells GlobeSt.com that staying digital in the construction lending process from start to finish is the first principal at the firm and says construction lenders suffer from inadequate processing and lack of loan administration solutions. This results in poor customer experience and frustrated employees pushing paper and PDF files via email back and forth. "Built has digitized this cumbersome process and is continually adding features to help streamline construction lending," he said.
Fraser advised Built during its early formation. Since the early '90s, it has been active in financing real estate development and construction for banks, private lenders and for a short period with the FDIC. "After watching Built grow, I knew I had a pretty unique opportunity to join and work on a problem that I have lived in for my career. It felt like a natural next step," he said.
Before Built, Fraser was EVP of Commercial Lending at Axos Bank, where he was responsible for commercial construction lending, income property, lender finance, equipment leasing and factoring, with a combined portfolio of $5 billion.
Built measures performance by the percentage of unique construction dollars being successfully managed on its platform relative to the $1.3 trillion of U.S. construction spending, according to Fraser. "In the near-term, my personal goal is to raise awareness with lenders and developers to propel Built towards our goal of helping to manage $100 billion of construction spend annually," he said.
Today Built works with roughly 100 financial institutions, including 20 of the top 100 U.S. and Canadian construction lenders. "I've lived through the difficulties that construction loans present to bankers, developers, and regulators firsthand. I plan to leverage my experience and further enhance Built's value proposition to banks, its service propositions to developers, and provide better transparency to regulators," Fraser said.
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Mariah Brown
Mariah Brown is the New York Bureau Chief and Real Estate Reporter for GlobeSt.com, covering the New York Metro area, Northeast region and national real estate trends. She is responsible for producing multi-media content, including articles, podcasts and video. Before joining the GlobeSt team, she served as a New York Times fellow, reported for the Associated Press in New York and Philadelphia and several other New York City-based outlets.
