Don Clauson, President Strat Property Managment
“While I live in California and own properties here and in Texas, I choose to work with a Chicago-based mortgage broker. My reasons are simple and transparent: Integrity, honesty, reliability, and a demonstrable work ethic which not only comes through in his capacity as a mortgage broker, but beyond the office as well.
Having worked with Neal Gussis and his colleagues for more than a decade, we have come to trust and value their advice regarding all aspects of commercial real estate financing. They have proven themselves time and time again, on deal after deal. Unlike many other firms, CCM can go beyond simply securing new debt for properties by supporting our financing needs with creative lending structures.
Neal is among the pioneers of self-storage financing, having supported the growth and maturity of our industry from the earliest days of commercial mortgage-backed securities programs. With more than 20 years of self-storage experience, his team truly understands storage property operations and utilizes that knowledge in their daily interactions with financing sources. Their longstanding relationships and reputation with lenders offer us access to multiple capital sources, and their client-centric negotiation expertise has always come to the fore to support my requirements. With his personal involvement from initial property analysis to closing day funding, I count on Neal to direct and monitor our loan transactions, and have never doubted his ability to represent our interests at any stage of the lending process.”
Kelly Gallacher of Gallacher Development
Neal Gussis, his partner Steve Libert and their entire staff at CCM Commercial Mortgage do more than “deliver”. They stay on top of the project, anticipate our needs and treat our deals as if they were there own. Not only have they always met our expectations but they have developed solutions, resolved problems and kept us completely informed throughout the entire process. They’re more than our advocate, they’ve become a partner.
David R. Inmann – President of Storage Investment Management, Inc
“Our organization has known and have worked with Neal and Steve on financing and refinancing our portfolio of storage properties twice now over the past 2 decades. Neal and Steve are quality guys and provide quality service. We recommend them to our own clients and highly recommend them to you for your loan brokerage needs.”
Roy B. Stromme, President of Ace Mini Storage
“The Ace Mini Storage LLC 2014 CMBS refinancing was a success. Although Ace started its planning late last year, allowing many months of lead time, projects like this are never easy. The Ace refinancing was especially complex because of the defeasance cost and Ace’s additional goal of financing a new building to increase the number of its fully temperature controlled rental units.
I most appreciated your attentiveness, accessibility, and dedication to getting Ace the best offers from a variety of lenders. You also put in additional efforts to make sure that the final loan matched the offer -which wasn’t guaranteed. Your assistance with the due diligence and insights and attention to detail resulted in multiple lender choices for Ace that were competitive and financially beneficial. Having a prior track record with JP Morgan, the lender we chose, smoothed the negotiations and submission of due diligence information.
I highly recommend you and CCM Commercial Mortgage, LLC to anyone considering refinancing, original financing, or defeasance. Your efforts for Ace proved their worth with a successful refinancing and defeasance that included sufficient capital for Ace to complete its new building while maintaining a substantial working capital cushion.”
Dean La Corte, Managing Member of Beachside Storage & Business Park, LLC
“I am sending you this letter as Managing Member of several self-storage and business parks. It is my intent to describe my experience working with you and your firm so that you can share this information with prospects that are considering working with you.
The quality of work you produced was superb but that alone didn’t get us across the finish line. Grit probably best describes what it took to get us the best deal in our most recent multi-property refinance. We had a few lenders that proposed deals that were too good to be true and were filled with empty promises. Your ability to juggle proposals from lenders and compare the finer points while weighing your overall confidence in them to close the deal under the agreed upon terms was nothing short of fantastic.
In the end you found our firm a lending solution that was a perfect fit. You have a remarkable ability to orchestrate professional responses to complex third party requests and write outrageously detailed and accurate responses to their questions. The amount of work you produced was impressive and always
ahead of schedule. You worked tirelessly to meet deadlines and coordinate efforts and correspondence that helped me to stay ahead of what seemed to be a never-ending request for information. Once again, thanks.
It is because of my extensive experience working with you that I feel comfortable recommending that anyone in need of new financing bring your firm on board as soon as possible. I am sure you will exceed their expectations in every way, just as you exceeded ours.”
Doug Hunt, Owner of Owners Management Company
“Having worked on several property refinancings with CCMCommercial Mortgage’s Neal Gussis since 1998, we have ridden through several economic cycles together during that 15-plus year time period. Regardless of market conditions, Neal has consistently used his capital market connections to help Access Storage locate and secure the best terms available for our self-storage properties. Our company may not be a large player in the self-storage world, but CCM always comes through for us with excellent terms.”
Stephen Siegel, President/CEO of The Siegel Group
“I would enthusiastically refer Steve Libert and the team at CCM Commercial Mortgage to any real estate professional who finds themselves in the position of needing to resolve or restructure loans with their current lender. After working directly with a lender for nearly two years to obtain a resolution, I engaged CCM on a multi-property loan workout involving a loss share agreement. With Steve’s involvement, settlement discussions progressed in a positive direction. It was apparent that the lender clearly respected his experience and expertise, as well as CCM’s reputation in the industry for successfully working through complex transactions and issues from both lender and borrower perspectives.
Whether after-hours or on weekends, Steve’s 24/7 assistance was invaluable. Thanks to our combined efforts, I was ultimately able to successfully resolve all issues related to these loans and save millions of dollars in the process.”
Savvas Marinos Senior VP, San Diego Region of Colliers International
“Our family has developed and currently owns storage facilities. We rely on industry professionals to optimize our investments. We are not in the market every day, so when we were ready to refinance, we were recommended to contact CCM Commercial Mortgage. We were certainly very pleased that we ended up working with CCM Commercial Mortgage. From beginning to end, they guided us through the process and obtained an attractive fixed rate loan with flexible terms. CCM really knows their business. I would highly recommend them to any owner seeking new financing.”
Henry Oxnard, Owner of Champions Business Park
“While nothing in life is guaranteed, it’s safe to say there are two constants when working with CCM Commercial Mortgage and Neal Gussis:
- Each loan is more complex, and
- Their team always comes through for us.
We have completed many transactions together over the years. Not only do I appreciate their productive approaches to my lending needs, but their honesty and integrity stand out on every deal.”
James Fondren, Owner Magnolia Self Storage Vicksburg, MS
“We are pleased to note our satisfaction with CCM Commercial Mortgage, LLC. Steve Libert and Neal Gussis displayed a high level of professionalism and integrity. While managing the process their attention to detail and coordination of parties involved was remarkable. At the same time, CCM took into account the specific characteristics of our business and kept the process on track.”
Charles Ray Wilson, MAI, CRE, Founder, Self Storage Data Services, Inc. and Charles R. Wilson & Associates, Inc.
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Neal Gussis for well over 20 years. We have had the distinguished opportunity to work with countless mutual clients, both owners and lenders. I have enjoyed speaking on many panels with Neal and having many conversations relating to various issues and developments relating to the self storage industry. Neal is an expert in his field. I am not alone within the self storage community for the deep level of respect I have for Neal on how he knows his trade and how his company conducts business.”
Jim Lindsay, Owner of South Street Self Storage
“First of all you were referred to me by a long time friend who has worked with you successfully for years on many self storage loans. He told me that, in his opinion, you were the best person to work with. Fortunately for me and for my partners, I took this advice.
What we all initially thought would be a fairly routine refinance of a maturing 10-year conduit loan for a well performing property, turned into anything but routine. A problematic environmental review by an overzealous individual ultimately required us to start over with another lender after the loan docs had been signed! This is when you truly showed your experience and tenacity by finding another lender to step in at the point where the original loan had matured and there was tremendous pressure to pay it off.
Neal, I really appreciate how hands on and proactive you were in getting this challenging transaction to the finish line. Throughout the process you proved to be a tremendous partner. I honestly don’t think we would have been able to get this done without your guidance and exceptional effort.
On behalf of my South Street Self Storage partners and myself, thank you so much!”