You can see the shock on my face when Bill gave me this and other examples of how investors are repurposing real estate after the recession. Can you imagine, buying an old mothballed hotel for $2,000,000, refurbishing it and selling it six months later for $90,000,000? That’s right, you read this correctly.
No doubt, Bill and I are in the wrong business.
While attending the CREFC (that’s Commercial Real Estate Finance Council) West Coast Conference in May 2015, Bill shared some stories about how some investors are making a killing, repurposing dead malls, hospitals and hotels.
An emphasis of this discussion is that there is “gold in them secondary and tertiary markets!” If you know how to look for the gold and bring it out of the ground, you can strike it rich where others are not looking.
This is not a new concept. College sports teams, the NBA and major league baseball have been scouting talent outside of the United States looking for that gem, where other teams are not looking.
Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.