From left: Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross and partners Jeff Blau and Bruce Beal

Only 18 months ago, Miami Dolphins owner and developer Stephen Ross thought U.S. banks were a wise investment. Now, it seems, he’s changed his mind.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ross and partners in the New York-based Related Companies Jeff Blau and Bruce Beal each put $100 million of their own money, in addition to $1 billion raised from investors, into a fund called SJB Escrow Corp. in 2009, and spent a year researching U.S. banks, hoping to buy or invest $1.1 billion in lenders. The deeper they looked however, the more worrying things became; they saw troubled assets, weak loan demand, rising regulatory costs and few growth prospects.
“We’re disappointed to see the opportunity evaporate,” Ross said. “If you look at the environment today, I feel even more comfortable that we made the right decision [not to invest].” [more]

The booths at RECon, the world’s largest retail real estate trade show taking place in Las Vegas this week, tell a story on their own of the industry through their size, location and pull on attendees. The booths of brokerage firms like CB Richard Ellis and Newmark Knight Frank were more densely packed than their competitor Jones Lang LaSalle today, but also smaller. JLL took a much larger corner space, and its display included a waterfall spelling its name in cascading letters on the outside wall.

RECon, the annual trade show put on by the International Council of Shopping Centers, is considered by most brokers to be the most important show of the year. It started yesterday and runs to Wednesday, and draws approximately 30,000 attendees to the more than 1,000 exhibitors spread across three massive halls. [more]

Several Related Companies executives, including CEO Stephen Ross, have received preliminary approval to charter a bank. Ross, Jeff Blau and Bruce Beal Jr. will own most of the voting shares in the proposed bank, called SJB National Bank. Related will have no stake in the bank, according to a notice posted yesterday on the Web site of the Comptroller of the Currency. The execs are considering bidding on Corus bank, a Chicago-based lender troubled by condo construction loans. SJB may also purchase assets of banks that have been seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, according to the notice. Adolfo Henriques, chairman of Gibraltar Private Bank, would lead SJB, the notice said.