Environmental Risk Management
We are entering the “clean-up phase” of this recent economic disaster. This means that lenders with distressed debt will be considering ownership of collateral to secure recovery. Rest assured, our team of experts have guided clients and lenders with business transactions through multiple economic cycles.
We serve professionals in commercial real estate equity acquisition and management, as well as debt origination, acquisition and servicing. We manage risk for public and private investors, banks, insurance companies and asset managers nationally. Our focus is to:
- Help our clients compete for CRE assets.
- Protect our clients from physical property liabilities.
- Frame environmental liabilities using accurate cost-to-cure and time-to-cure metrics.
- Provide clear options and solutions.
Due Diligence and Risk Control
Environmental liability may be small, but it’s often a significant component of real estate investment decision making. We present environmental liability and corrective options in terms of time, activity and cost. This is the critical information necessary to support the execution of your investment strategy.
Bell Oldow Environmental Jumpstart™
Easier and faster real estate risk control
We developed Environmental Jumpstart™ based on our work with underwriters, account managers and risk control managers. They told us that they need more than the industry standard spreadsheet to help determine environmental risk.
“We go beyond the risk control spreadsheet.”
With Bell Oldow’s Environmental Jumpstart™ service, clients receive actionable information earlier in the risk management process, are relieved of document and property list sorting and reconciling, and can rely on expert, nuanced risk analyses necessary when creating manuscript policies.
By utilizing documents from either brokers’ repositories or carriers’ own data rooms, our automated process saves significant time and money. Jumpstart provides:
- Opportunity Analysis – a snapshot of the risk and synopsis of submission data quality/completeness.
- Environmental Risk Review (risk control spreadsheet) – this consolidated document captures both location and insurance-specific risks.
- Disclosed Document List – an editable list containing every document provided by the broker.
- Mapped Locations – displaying overall geographical distribution, as well as property specific satellite and street views.
- Individual Property Folders – are provided in a single downloadable .ZIP file that includes every document pre-sorted into labeled property folders.
See our Jumpstart announcement for more details.
Bell Oldow Environmental RoadMap™
The industry standard for CRE whole loan pre-acquisition and pre-foreclosure due diligence
When evaluating properties, you need a fast, reliable recommendation for existing and potential environmental liabilities. The Bell Oldow Environmental RoadMap is an easy-to-read, straight to the point report that includes a color-coded risk rating schedule which facilitates decision making when considering lending, loan purchases or workout.
As experienced scientists, we develop an Environmental RoadMap by using several resources; customer provided data, acquired industry data and our knowledge to provide the site’s environmental risks. Liabilities are monetized to factor easily into pricing models.
Our forward looking pro forma, helps lenders use the cost-to-cure dollar amount information in scenario modeling and pre-bid considerations.
Our customers find the Environmental RoadMap will pay for itself during the bid process and eliminate 50% of environmental due diligence time. It will:
- Reduce due diligence time and cost — acquisition bid-to-win ratios are typically low
- Sharpen bids – concise explanations of the environmental risks are provided
- Guidance for servicers — provide action steps and expected costs throughout the life of the loan
“Bell Oldow’s reports, timeliness, and environmental knowledge are excellent. I can count on their reviews to be thorough, reliable, and to the point. They bring forward the important issues and make recommendations that I have to know about for my internal lending clients. Their expertise and communication skills are a real asset to me and the bank.”
Environmental Manager
New York office of an International Bank
Environmental Phase 1 Review
After reviewing thousands of Phase I reports we know the quality can vary drastically and may contain scientific jargon, recommendations and other information that is not well understood outside of the environmental realm.
We are independent.
We don’t overlook risks that require consideration.
We don’t have an incentive to recommend more work than necessary.
We’ll review your Environmental Phase I and provide a concise summary in business friendly language that highlights the important environmental risks along with options to manage these exposures and potential costs through the term of the deal. Our review allows you to quickly understand the environmental risks and make decisions so that you can move on to other important aspects of your day.
Environmental Risk Analysis
Bell Oldow provides environmental risk analyses for single locations and multi-site portfolios. Competitive bid portfolios are a delicate balance of effort versus reward; why spend a lot of your time and hard-earned money on engineering costs when you only have a chance of winning? Bell Oldow can complete an expedited desktop review of available documents using a step-wise approach, first, to give you a high-level understanding of the risks to determine if it falls within your appetite. If more information is needed, we drill down with further desktop research, phone surveys and/or site surveys, to fill data gaps and provide a full understanding of the risk.
- Organize
Bell Oldow uses the Griptiller data transfer platform to save time and frustration in organizing properties and reports. We’ll upload your documents for an easy to view property types, map of locations, and aerial/street views. All this provides you a jumpstart and an idea of the quality of the submission. - Analyze
Our review combines fundamental property information with our broad-based industry and regulatory experience. We then extract the detail necessary to help you understand the risks. We also include mitigation measures for you to consider for managing these risks and minimizing losses - Deliver
The evaluation highlights the risks in a color-coded report that allows you to focus attention on where it is needed most. We pride ourselves in being able to complete work to meet your schedule.
Facilitate third party due diligence
Some financial institutions are not large enough to support an in-house environmental department. Bell Oldow can help you decide the level of due diligence necessary and by facilitating the process by managing contractors. To make it easy and seamless for you, provide an address, supporting information and a due date and we will handle the rest.
Consulting
From the simple to the complex, we are here for you.
Bell Oldow provides opinions based on decades of success to guide you to the right choice. With our experience inside the banking and insurance industries, we know how deals are structured. We help our clients develop unique solutions to mitigate environmental risks.