Winter 2013 • Issue 46, page 16

Bill Hoffman: Everyday is a Journey

By Phelps, Kathy Bazoian *

Receiver Profile

You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but Trigild president Bill Hoffman has a Bohemian bent. Last summer, he opted to forgo a traditional summer vacation, and instead packed up his belongings in a VW camper bus and traversed the United States solo. “My wife refused to endure the drive, but flew to meet me in various places,” he laughs. “With a laptop and cell phone, I managed to stay connected while putting nearly 25,000 miles on my van.”

Hoffman, who is one of the most respected experts on receivership law in the industry – with over 30 years experience as an attorney, real estate broker, and court appointed receiver for more than 2,000 assets – got into the business quite by accident. “I was in law school, and in order to pay for it, managed a small hotel in Del Mar, Calif. “By the time I earned my J.D., I had formed Trigild with two of the hotel owners.”

That was in 1976, when Trigild was founded primarily as a hotel management firm. Then, "about 25 years ago," Hoffman recalls, “we started getting calls to handle non-performing commercial loans on those kinds of properties. Our first receivership assignment was on a hotel in Palm Springs for Home Federal Savings.”

Armed with Hoffman’s expertise in the law, Trigild has since expanded its business to include a variety of fiduciary assignments while continuing to evolve as a full service real estate services firm, offering asset management, property management, receivership/bankruptcy, and consulting services.

Today the business continues to grow, with properties in all sectors nationwide. Hoffman runs the San Diego based company with his wife, Judy Maxwell Hoffman, who joined the firm in 1983, and is now its Chief Operating Officer. Their corporate office is in San Diego, with additional offices around the country.

Hoffman and his firm have handled thousands of properties over the years, and most are management-intensive projects – such as hotels, restaurants, gas stations, senior care facilities, and other retail businesses. “We also handle many ’traditional’ commercial real estate projects like office buildings, multifamily, shopping centers, and industrial complexes,” Hoffman says.

Properties which involve the operation of a retail business are more challenging, but also Trigild’s forte. "We often hire hundreds of employees on very short notice, and have thousands of details to track to make the court – as well as both debtor and lender – happy."

Hoffman’s job is not a simple feat. “It’s never possible to please everyone in what is often an unpleasant circumstance,” he says. "You have a lender who hasn’t been paid and a debtor who may lose their property. Our job is to protect the asset itself – the business. As long as we adhere to that rule, and know that the court itself will approve of our work, we hope that the parties in litigation will at least recognize that fact."

One way to keep everyone happy is to stay on top of complex receivership issues. In fact, “many bankers, lawyers and even judges have little experience with the receivership process and state and federal rules vary widely. This gives me a chance to be a source of information as well as a problem-solver, something I find very rewarding,” he says.

Hoffman, who in addition to being an attorney is also a Certified Hotel Administrator, licensed real estate broker and past president of the California Lodging Industry Association, has worked hard to make receivership a better understood legal remedy. His company hosts the annual Trigild Lender Conference; he has authored over a hundred articles for various finance, real estate, hospitality, and general publications, and he is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and conventions. His unique blend of expertise in management, receivership law, and real estate qualifies him as an expert witness – and has led State and Federal Courts to appoint him as Receiver, Trustee or Custodian for troubled real estate assets across North America and in Puerto Rico.

And while his job is not always easy, it is most often interesting. Over the years, Hoffman and his team have seen it all – arriving at a location to find a building gone, encountering moving trucks ready to remove all of a hotel’s furniture…. even having a gun drawn by an irate debtor. Hoffman is quick to point out that every one of these projects involves real people with very real emotions. “Sometimes we have to remind people that we are not the ‘bad guys,’ but that we are there to do what we can to make a bad situation better. Most people, however, when they really understand our role, see the importance of our work and the professionalism of our team.”

In more recent years, Hoffman has seen a new phenomenon: the surge in receivership sales, which he attributes to the enormous volume of distressed commercial real estate assets. “As lenders move to sell properties that served as collateral for loans gone bad, the amount of sales by receivers will continue to increase,” he says.

Trigild, as receiver, helped facilitate the sale of roughly $320 million in commercial real estate during 2011 alone. And in 2010, Hoffman helped open the door for substantial boosts in commercial loan recovery for lenders when an Arizona Superior Court issued a ruling enabling Trigild to sell seven Arizona apartment complexes for $123 million. According to Hoffman, “Trigild and the lender’s counsel won the court’s approval to sell the properties during receivership and not require the lender to foreclose prior to a sale. This was unprecedented – and a major victory for special servicers, who were able to provide financing for a new owner and recover $50 million more than an all-cash sale.”

For Hoffman, every day is a journey – and a lesson learned. Whether it’s a precedent-setting case, major industry conference, or road trip through the wilderness, he has an insatiable thirst for absorbing – and sharing – knowledge. And while his accomplishments are many, Hoffman doesn’t measure his success by landmark cases or multi-million projects. His crowning achievements? “Our two grown children – and the fact they are both gainfully employed,” he says. “I’m also proud of my staff at Trigild, whom I consider family as well!”

*Kathy Bazoian Phelps, Esq. is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Diamond McCarthy LLP. She has special expertise in all areas of bankruptcy and receivership law and in representing trustees and receivers in large-scale litigation involving fraudulent and Ponzi schemes. She is a Board Member of the Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter of the California Receivers Forum.