Greg Duvall is a Senior Vice President and Senior Director in NorthMarq Capital’s (NorthMarq) Kansas City Regional office. NorthMarq is a privately owned national commercial mortgage banking business headquartered in Minneapolis, providing many services for commercial real estate owners, occupiers, and investors, including brokerage, property management and industry-leading capital market solutions.
Duvall, a Kansas City area native and a graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School, attended KU where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business, and then earned his MBA at Memphis University. After a stint with Procter and Gamble and then with the Travelers Insurance Commercial Real Estate Department, Duvall joined NorthMarq, where he’s been for the past 23 years.
What is your main focus at NorthMarq?
As a Senior Vice President – loan production, I am responsible for generating (mostly) permanent loans. Typical lenders are life companies and agencies (Freddie/Fannie) or HUD. We do all types of commercial income property – office, retail, apartments and industrial. We’ve done more apartment business over the past 5 years than other property types. NorthMarq services most of the loans we originate – I also am responsible for making sure the servicing of the loans goes smoothly for my clients.
What’s your opinion on the state of the economy and how it relates to your business?
I think we have turned the corner although I think the recovery in our industry will be slow, particularly since the overall economy will be gradual and RE is generally a lagging indicator.
What are your biggest challenges right now?
The biggest challenges right now - loan underwriting is much tighter than it was two to three years ago. Therefore, it is often very difficult to achieve the desired/requested loan amounts, and there are just very few sales transactions. We do both refinances and acquisition financing, therefore we still have a fairly steady stream of refinance business, but the acquisition financing is just a fraction of what it was a few years ago.
How will you meet those challenges?
We look to expand our client base and to provide additional services to our existing clients (equity, bridge financing, etc.).
What deals are you involved in?
I am currently working on a number of multifamily deals and a few commercial (retail) loan requests. Recently I closed a $7.24 million acquisition loan secured by a 219 unit apartment property located in Atlanta. A number of my clients are actively pursuing acquisitions, but have not yet pulled the trigger. Below, Duvall also recently closed a $15.36 million acquisition loan secured by the Broadstone Colonnade Apartments which are located in San Antonio. The borrower in connection with the Broadstone Colonnade loan is based here in Kansas City - and NorthMarq has done business with them for over 20 years.
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Tell us a bit more about NorthMarq and how it’s fared recently.
We have approximately 30 offices throughout the country and our list of lenders includes over 50 life insurance companies along with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD. We service approximately $40 billion of commercial mortgage loans. NorthMarq is very strong financially which has enabled us to expand during the current RE downturn. NorthMarq has been a great place to work – which is why I have chosen to stay here since 1987.
Tell us about your family and interests
My wife and I have enjoyed raising our 3 kids – Michael, John and Rachel. Michael is out of college, John is a senior in college and Rachel is a junior at Shawnee Mission East. Our two boys went back East to college where they both played football – so we enjoyed following that as well as other activities they were involved in as younger kids. Our daughter is a very committed ballet student – she will be in NY attending the School of American Ballet for a 6 week program again this summer – and we enjoy watching her perform and advance in her chosen field of interest. As the kids grow more independent, my wife Elaine and I are both trying to pick up golf, and we both enjoy travel.