Wall Street Journal
PHOENIX — Flamboyant real-estate financier Scott Coles penned a farewell letter, put on a tuxedo and climbed into bed, where he was later found dead in what police believe was a suicide. The tragedy last month is drawing attention to the condition of the nation’s commercial real-estate market, which is beginning to show mounting signs of distress. Mr. Coles, who was 48 years old, had built his company, Mortgages Ltd., into one of Arizona’s biggest private lenders during the real-estate boom. It specialized in short-term, high-interest-rate loans to commercial developers — builders of malls, office parks, condominiums and other projects — who either had bad credit or a need for quick cash with no red tape. But he overreached, and the debacle that has devastated the U.S. housing market the past year is now squeezing Mortgages Ltd. More
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July 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
[…] LipBlog » Real Estate wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWall Street Journal PHOENIX — Flamboyant real-estate financier Scott Coles penned a farewell letter, put on a tuxedo and climbed into bed, where he was later found dead in what police believe… [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]