Candace Cunningham
Title: Counsel, Robinson + Cole
Age: 55
Experience: 28 years
A law school class piqued Candace Cunningham’s interest in commercial real estate, and real-life experience confirmed her knack at closing transactions. Cunningham represents commercial lenders providing financing to multifamily housing developers, both in the Hartford area and throughout the U.S. Last year, Cunningham represented the Capital Region Development Authority on a $3.8 million construction loan for the 26-unit Grand on Ann Street complex in downtown Hartford. In February, she represented Citibank in financing for the seventh phase of the Denver Housing Authority’s Mariposa public housing redevelopment, in which middle-income and market-rate apartments are being added as the 800-unit complex is rebuilt.
Q: What prompted you to specialize in commercial real estate law?
A: For all of my career, I’ve represented lenders. For a short stint, I also represented some developers in bankruptcy workouts. For the past 20 years, it’s been concentrated in multifamily affordable housing. The initial thing was, I totally loved and understood my real property law class. It was one of those things where you hit a subject you not only comprehend, but enjoy reading about. That was the start of it. Then when I got into practice, my first practice was commercial real estate. I very much enjoyed the aspects of transactional law, working with everybody to close a transaction. While you represent your client’s best interest, transactional law is less adversarial than litigation can be. And I liked that very much, looking to close a deal.
Q: What’s the fastest growing part of your practice in 2016?
A: Right now, most of the transactions have been generated by developers refinancing their properties. Because the commercial markets’ interest rates, especially the rates offered on the affordable housing properties by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, have been so low for the past few years, there are a lot of developers that have gone to refinance their existing indebtedness. And there’s the standard type of work that always fuels us: developers purchasing new properties and constructing new properties.
Q: Which lenders do you work with in the multifamily space?
A: Primarily I work for Citi Community Capital and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. We primarily work with them in delegated underwriting and servicing for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and also in their capacity for straight-up lending on their own behalf. For the most part, every single project has an affordable component. We just finished closing in February on the seventh phase of the Mariposa District in Denver. Each phase had four or five levels of subdebt on it, and it was singled out by the White House as a model of affordable development.
Q: Are lenders pulling back from multifamily lending in any markets?
A: No, it just keeps getting stronger and market conditions are great. People always need apartments to live in and the affordable sector appears to be a growing need. So work is getting busier, if it’s possible. I was recently at a conference and someone was talking about the effect of Millennials not wanting the responsibilities of the single-family home that they grew up in and wanting the amenities of the condos. So I’ve heard people positing that if there’s any increase in that type of development, it’s being driven by the new wave of homeowners and their desire to have smaller spaces, too, that don’t require all that care.
Cunningham’s Top Five Favorite Cities:
- Lucca, Italy
- Athens, Greece
- Paris, France
- New York City, New York
- San Francisco, California
