1 | july 17, 2015

A partnership between the New York-based Georgetown Company and an Ackman family investment fund closed on its purchase

of 787 11th Avenue on the Far West Side for just over $250 million, several well-

placed sources told Commercial Observer Finance.

“We’re thrilled to confirm this transaction closed last week and are excited about the potential future uses for this dynamic property,” said Georgetown Chief Executive Officer Adam Flatto, who led the deal for the buyers.

A fund affiliated with J.P. Morgan Asset Management provided a $180 million bridge loan for the acquisition, another person in the know said on the condition of anonymity. “It’s all funds—on both the buyer and the lender side,” that person said. The acquisition and

financing closed last Friday.A CBRE team, led by brokers Darcy

Stacom and Bill Shanahan, brokered the sale, while additional teams from CBRE and Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group negotiated the financing.

Ford Motor Company, the building’s pre-vious owner, put the eight-story property on

the market in March. The automotive giant bought and renovated the 11th Avenue site, between West 54th and 55th Streets, for $73 million in 1997, city records show.

The building’s ground-floor retail space is currently occupied by car dealerships for Jaguar and Land Rover, which Ford owned when it acquired and repositioned the proper-ty 18 years ago.

Cushman & Wakefield closed a $104 million land loan for a nine-parcel devel-opment site in Long Island City, Queens,

Commercial Observer Finance has learned.

Ladder Capital pro-vided the borrower, Jia Shu Xu of C&G Empire Realty, with the 18-month, non-re-course loan to acquire the development site from Citigroup, according to the brokerage firm. Mr. Xu purchased the site for $143 mil-lion in late June, public records show, bring-ing the loan-to-value ratio to 72.7 percent.

“After a competitive bidding process the seller selected our client because of his abil-ity to close quickly and his ability to line up all the capital in advance of signing of the contract,” said Morris Betesh, managing

See Cushman... continued on page 7See J.P. Morgan... continued on page 3

Cushman & Wakefield Closes $104M Land Loan for LIC Development Site

The LEAD

J.P. Morgan Fund Finances 787 11th Avenue Buy With

$180M Bridge Loan

In This Issue

3 Ritz Carlton Gets $135M Refinance From life lender

3 Eastern Consolidated Arranges $42M Acquisition loan for Flushing Development

5 DTZ Arranges Bridge loan for Whitestone Residential Project

5 jll Arranges $29M East West Bank loan for Phoenix Resort

7 Cleveland Shopping Center Gets $19M loan for Turnaround

7 Madison Realty Capital lends On Smith Street Development

“With our recent acquisition of Apartment Realty Advisors, we have

been executing more multihousing business then

we have in the past.” —Daniel Fromm

From Q&A on page 12

EXCLUSIVEEXCLUSIVE

The Insider’s Weekly Guide to the Commercial Mortgage Industry

FINANCE WEEKLY

2 | july 17, 2015

CAPS FEES

On all New Stabilized Purchase

$135K

EASTERN UNION FUNDING

Ira Zlotowitz, President 917-597-2197 iraz@easternuf.com

MORTGAGE BROKERAGE

at

Since Eastern Union introduced the “$250K Capped Fee” initiative a year ago, our deals over $10,000,000 doubled. By lowering the cap to $135,000, Eastern Union plans to triple their production

of large deals within the next 12 months.

Loan Amount Standard 1% Fee Eastern Union’s Fee

$25,000,000 $250,000 $135,000

$50,000,000 $500,000 $135,000

$100,000,000 $1,000,000 $135,000

3 | july 17, 2015

J.P. Morgan...continued from page 1

Ritz-Carlton Gets $135M Refinance From Life Lender

Delaware Life Insurance Company pro-vided a $135 million loan to MPE Hotel I LLC for the 259-room hotel and commercial portions of the The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, city records show.

Of the $135 million deal, $87.8 million is being used to refinance an existing loan orig-inated by Morgan Stanley while the re-maining $47.2 million is being used as a gap mortgage.

The hotel and commercial components of the Ritz-Carlton tower serve as collateral for the debt, comprising roughly 70 and 3 percent of the property, respectively. The building’s 12 residential apartments are not part of the col-lateral, according to the loan documents.

The borrower, MPE Hotel I, is an invest-ment vehicle created by the New York-based condominium and hotel development firm Millennium Partners and two German in-surance companies, according to a press re-lease on the original acquisition financing for several Ritz-Carlton buys.

The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, which is located at 50 Central Park South between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, was origi-nally constructed as the Hotel St. Moritz in 1930.

Representatives for Millennium Partners and Delaware Life did not respond to inqui-ries by press time. —Danielle Balbi

Eastern Consolidated Arranges $42M Acquisition Loan for

Flushing Development

The Former Assi Plaza

The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park

Pershing Square Capital Management, investor Bill Ackman’s $18 billion hedge fund, will move into a portion of the 464,000-square-foot building, Commercial Observer previous-ly reported.

While exact plans for the property have not yet been announced, the new owners are gear-ing up to put a tennis court on the building’s roof, according to one source.

Representatives for Mr. Ackman and Ford Motor were not immediately available for comment. A spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan Chase declined to comment.—Damian Ghigliotty

Eastern Consolidated’s capital ad-visory division arranged a $42 million bridge loan from New York-based pri-

vate lender RWN Management to help fund the purchase of a

development site in Flushing, Queens, Commercial Observer Finance has learned.

The buyer, a new development group called Triple Star Realty, purchased the 100,000-square-foot property at 131-01 39th Avenue—the former home of the Korean and Chinese grocer Assi Plaza—for more than $90 million, according to the brokers in the deal.

The previous owner is listed in city records as an affiliate of the New York development firm King’s USA Group.

Triple Star plans to raze the ex-isting structures and develop a 631,752-square-foot, mixed-use water-front complex consisting of a 360-unit residential condominium, 200-room hotel, supermarket and other retail, general and medical office space.

Managing Director Jonathan

Aghravi and Associate Director Charles Han of Eastern’s capital ad-visory division, led the financing team. They declined to name the lender.

“Through Eastern’s close relation-ship with the lender and the hard work of all involved, we were able to negoti-ate a larger loan and facilitate the clos-ing,” Mr. Aghravi said. “We now look forward to working with the borrowers on procuring the construction financ-ing for the project.”

The new owners are in the pre-de-velopment stage and plan to seek con-struction financing in the next three to six months, according to the brokers. The project is expected to take three years to complete.

The waterfront development, when finished, will stand out among the larg-est projects in the area, including Sky View Parc, Flushing Commons and Willets Point, Mr. Aghravi noted.

Representatives for Triple Star Realty and RWN Management did not return requests for comment.—Damian Ghigliotty

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4 | july 17, 2015

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5 | july 17, 2015

Despite DTZ’s recent acquisition of Cushman & Wakefield and its backing from the global private equity giant TPG Capital, the real estate advisory firm still has an appetite for deals outside of major metro areas.

The firm’s capital markets group se-cured a $14.5 million bridge loan for an 18-acre, luxury residential development site at 151-45 Sixth Road in Whitestone, Queens, DTZ Senior Vice President Jeffrey Donnelly told Commercial Observer Finance.

The loan from Toronto-based Romspen Investment Corporation covers environmental remediation of the property and pre-development costs, while providing a significant cash-out for the owners who had ac-quired the site in an all-cash deal, Mr. Donnelly said.

DTZ is getting ready to arrange a larg-er refinancing to allow for construction at the site to take place, he added.

The 52-home community, being built by the New York-based development firm Edgestone Group, will include a park and pier, open to the broader Whitestone community, as well as a 52-slip marina along the Whitestone waterfront.

Edgestone purchased the land from the Bayrock Group, another real estate developer, for $11.3 million in November 2012, city records show.

“This is the last remaining develop-ment site of any meaningful scale on the Whitestone waterfront,” Mr. Donnelly

noted. The 52 homes will range from 3,500 to 6,000 square feet and will carry asking prices that start at $2 million and exceed $5 million, he said.

“This was an exciting assignment, as most prospective lenders were able to see a strong loan-to-value ratio, strong home sale statistics, and the backing of a very high-net-worth developer,” said DTZ Vice President Ulrike Ahrens.

The job had its share of challenges, however, which limited the field of poten-tial lenders, according to the brokers.

Edgestone is an overseas group with “significant development experience in China,” but the Whitestone development is their first major project in the U.S., ac-cording to Ms. Ahrens.

Additionally, “the previous owner-ship had fumbled an environmental re-mediation of the site, and our clients are

forced to repeat the remediation pro-cess,” she said. “A good number of lend-ers could not get comfortable with the combination of foreign ownership and remaining environmental risk, howev-er slight.”

The developers scaled back the luxury residential project earlier this year from an initial plan of 107 townhouses, follow-ing “a barrage of complaints” from local residents, The Wall Street Journal report-ed in May.

“We’re like a small town,” Marilyn Bitterman, the local community board’s district manager told the Journal. “New development should stick to what’s pres-ently here.”

Representative for Edgestone could not be reached for comment in time for publication.—Damian Ghigliotty

DTZ Arranges Bridge Loan for Whitestone Residential Project

The Whitestone Development Site

JLL secured a $29 million floating-rate loan from East West Bank on behalf of the real estate investment firm JDM Partners for

its Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa located in a suburb of Phoenix, Commercial

Observer Finance can exclusively report.The borrower purchased the 331-room re-

sort and golf course in 2009 with no debt, and is using the five-year loan to reimburse inves-tors while the hotel undergoes renovations, said Dustin Stolly, a managing director in JLL’s New York office.

“[JDM] is in the process of finishing reno-vations of the entire hotel, including all the rooms. There is a ton of intrinsic value, up-side and cash flow,” Mr. Stolly noted. “East West Bank saw that. They have lent on a

few resorts, knew the asset well and were very comfortable with the Phoenix-based sponsorship.”

The loan features a low-leverage point, an-other person familiar with the deal told COF.

The resort, which is located at 300 E Wigwam Boulevard in Litchfield Park,

totals 460 acres and includes an Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, four restaurants, four swimming pools and three 18-hole golf courses.

JDM, which in the past had owned and sold ownership stakes in the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Phoenix Suns, “sig-nificantly upgraded operations in both the hotel and golf course since they purchased the asset,” Mr. Stolly added.

JLL Senior Vice President Mike Huth and Vice President Aaron Niedermayer also worked on the debt deal.

A spokeswoman for East West Bank de-clined to comment. Representatives for JDM could not be reached for comment in time for publication.—Danielle Balbi

JLL Arranges $29M East West Bank Loan for Phoenix Resort

Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa

EXCLUSIVE

6 | july 17, 2015

DEBT MEZZANINE EQUITY INVESTMENT SALES W W W . A C K M A N Z I F F . C O M

NEW YORK BOSTON LOS ANGELES MIAMI SAN FRANCISCO

G L O B A L C A P I T A L T E C H N O L O G Y

R E A L E S T A T E A D V I S O R Y

T R U S T O N E F I R M

7 | july 17, 2015

Madison Realty Capital provided Brooklyn-based Second Development Services with a short-term $9 million loan

for the acquisition and de-velopment of 232 Smith Street in Brooklyn, the

lender told Commercial Observer Finance.The borrower, headed by Louis Greco,

intends to build a 15,000-square-foot, three-floor retail building on the site, which is located on the corner of Smith and Douglass Streets in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood.

“Just in general, Smith Street is one of the

top retail corridors in all of Brooklyn, seeing major retailers from Manhattan,” said Josh Zegen, co-founder and managing principal at MRC. “There is a high-end demograph-ic, people like to shop, it is well located from a transportation standpoint, and it’s a real neighborhood in general.”

The New York-based middle-market in-vestment and lending firm was able to provide the financing at a relatively high loan-to-cost on a very good basis because the borrower bought into a partnership with the site’s existing owner, Mr. Zegen noted. SDS now holds a majority interest in

the property, he said.The development firm has completed a

number of projects throughout New York City, including the residential condomini-um building Richard Meier On Prospect Park at 1 Grand Army Plaza.

SDS plans to break ground on 232 Smith Street in the fall and the project is slated for completion by the summer of 2016. The building is pre-leased and will feature a sin-gle retail tenant.

Representatives for SDS did not return requests for comment by press time.—Danielle Balbi

Madison Realty Capital Lends On Smith Street Development

Eastern Union Funding se-cured a high-leverage, $19 mil-lion loan on behalf of America’s

Realty President Carl Verstandig to reposition a

shopping center in the suburbs of Cleveland, Commercial Observer Finance has learned.

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Bank provided the seven-year loan on Southgate Shopping Center in Maple Heights. The debt carries a floating rate of 2.50 percent over Libor, 12 months of interest-only payments with a 25-year amortization schedule and “50 percent burn-off recourse,” ac-cording to the broker.

Eastern Union Senior Managing Director Marc Tropp negotiated the debt deal.

The 800,000-square-foot shop-ping center, anchored by Home Depot, is appraised at $26 million and expected to reach $33 million upon stabilization.

America’s Realty bought the asset for $14 million in late 2013. Southgate was 50 percent occupied at the time of the purchase and ten-ants were on month-to-month re-tainers, according to the sponsor. The property is now 85 percent oc-cupied, with most of the tenants having signed five-year leases.

“This is one of the most dense-ly populated areas of Cleveland,”

said Mr. Verstandi, who now owns 287 shopping centers in 38 states. “Southgate was neglected when we found it, but it’s positioned to be a one-stop shop in a prime location.”

As part of the repositioning, the sponsor installed energy efficient lighting, upgraded the storefront facades and created new parking areas. The landlord recently inked a deal to lease 55,000 square feet to the warehouse-style clothing store chain Forman Mills, which plans to open its doors at Southgate this fall.

“When Carl and his team bought the asset in December of 2013 the leases were rolling and the dis-tress signals were all there,” Mr. Tropp said. “Carl and his team didn’t waste any time in changing that by bringing in national ten-ants, renewing the leases and lay-ing the groundwork for even more big-box tenants to anchor the property.” —Damian Ghigliotty

Cleveland Shopping Center Gets $19M Loan for Turnaround

Southgate Shopping Center

One Court Square

EXCLUSIVE

EXCLUSIVE

director at C&W. It took Mr. Betesh five weeks to close the deal, he said.

Mr. Xu is currently working with archi-tects to draft a plan for the 780,000-square-foot property located on 23rd Street between 44th Drive and 44th Road, north of One Court Square. It is currently zoned for residential, office, retail and hotel use.

The Flushing-based developer owns a number of condominium properties in Flushing and Corona, as well as two hotels near LaGuardia Airport—the Fairfield Inn on College Point Boulevard and the SpringHill Suites on Northern Boulevard, according to published reports. Just last year, Mr. Xu purchased a $22 million site on the corner of Guy R. Brewer Boulevard and Archer Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.

“In this direct submarket there are about 20,000 units planned or coming online over the next three to five years, and over the last five years about 8,000 units have been delivered,” said Mr. Betesh, who joined C&W through its acquisition of Massey Knakal last year.

“In total that’s about 28,000 units which will add at least 60,000 new residents to the neighborhood and given [Long Island City’s] ease of transportation, it is probably the per-fect place to have that growth,” he added.

Representatives for Mr. Xu did not re-turn requests for comment by press time. A Ladder Capital spokesman declined to comment.—Danielle Balbi

Cushman...continued from page 1

8 | july 17, 2015

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9 | july 17, 2015

Commercial real estate veter-an Quinn Gormley has joined the accounting, tax and advisory firm CohnReznick as a director of real estate consulting in the firm’s Austin, Texas, office, according to a recent announcement.

Mr. Gormley has more than 20 years experience in commercial real estate with a special focus on affordable housing and economic development.

In his previous roles he has taken the lead on structured finance deals—including conventional and tax-exempt revenue bond trans-actions—and has overseen the de-velopment and initial operation of more than 6,000 units of multi-family and single-family affordable housing.

Prior to joining CohnReznick, Mr. Gormley served as director of multifamily housing at the nation-al construction firm Adolfson & Peterson Construction, accord-ing to his LinkedIn profile.

“Quinn has deep industry knowledge and an impressive

track record,” Matthew Stille, CohnReznick’s office managing partner for its Austin office, said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to the contributions that Quinn will bring to our Austin of-fice and Real Estate Consulting practice throughout the Firm’s South/Central region.”

RealtyMogul.com raised $35 million in Series-B funding led by Sorenson Capital with additional funding from Canaan Partners to boost the company’s online real es-tate investing presence.

The crowdfunding website in-tends to use the new financing to hire more technologists and data scientists and bolster its technol-ogy platform, according to a press release from RealtyMogul.com. The company also plans to further expand its geographic presence across the U.S.

Over the last year, the peer-to-peer real estate marketplace has

increased its headcount from 10 to 80 employees.

To date, RealtyMogul.com has helped fund 240 properties to-taling more than $500 million in value.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Sorenson Capital and Canaan Partners for this next stage of our growth,” Jilliene Helman, the company’s chief executive officer, said in the release.

“Their investment underscores RealtyMogul.com’s innovative technology for the full stack of real estate transactions, both debt and equity, and will help bring the $11 trillion commercial real estate market into the 21st century,” she added.

The latest funding news comes on the heels of the three recent senior hires. Ryan Sakamoto has joined RealtyMogul.com as in-house general counsel, and Michael Sanchez and Charles Kim have joined the company’s commercial lending division from Colony Capital.

Workforce

June 3rd: Retail Lending

July 8th: Alternative Finance

August 5th: Europe & Asia Investments

September 9th: Lawyers | Mortgage REITs

October 7th: Hotel Lending

November 4th: Top 30 Under 30

December 2nd: CMBS

For advertising information, contact Barbara Shapiro at 212.407.9383 or bshapiro@observer.com

UPCOMING SPECIAL EXPANDED FINANCE ISSUESJune 3rd: Retail Lending

July 8th: Alternative Finance

August 5th: Europe & Asia Investments

September 9th: Lawyers | Mortgage REITs

October 7th: Hotel Lending

November 4th: Top 30 Under 30

December 2nd: CMBS

For advertising information, contact Barbara Shapiro at 212.407.9383 or bshapiro@observer.com

UPCOMING SPECIAL EXPANDED FINANCE ISSUES

10 | july 17, 2015

New York Real Estate Summit Outlook for 2015-2016: The Sky is the limit what can we expect? Monday, June 22, 2015 -8:00 AM to 12 Noon Graduate Center of the City University-365 Fifth Ave, New York City

www.nyrealestatesummit.com

Schedule for the event:

7:30 AM-8:30 AM: Registration & breakfast 8:30 AM-9:30AM: Industry Pro’s View on the market-Where are we headed? 9:40 AM-10:40 AM: Money, Money & More Money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli Bond Financing, EB 5, Crowd funding, Joint Ventures & other sources of funds to fuel the hot, hot, real estate market 10::40 AM-11:00 AM: Coffee Break 11:00 AM - 12:00 Development Forum: Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Coast of New Jersey 12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Networking For additional information visit the website or call: www.nyrealestatesummit.com Michael Stoler, 646-442-0717 mstoler@madisonrealtycapital.com michaelstoler@icloud.com www.michaelstolertelevision.com www.buildingnynylifestories.com www.thestolerreport.com

www.michaelstolertelevision.com

Industry Pro’s View on the state of market & economy-where are we headed? Michael Maturo, President, RXR Realty LLC Stephen Siegel, Chairman, Global Brokerage, CBRE Steven Witkoff, Chairman & CEO, Witkoff Group Ofer Yardeni, Chairman & CEO, Stonehenge Partners

Money, Money & more money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli bond financing,EB-5, Crowd funding, Joint ventures & other sources of funds to fuel the hot, hot, real estate market Ralph Herzka, President & CEO, Meridian Capital Group Mary King, Chief Operating Officer, New York City Regional Center Philip McAndrews, Sr. Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer-Global Real Estate, TIAA-CREF Dan Miller, Co-Founder & President, Fundrise Ofer Grinbaum, CEO, Leumi Partners Undewriting Jeffrey Ruidl, Director, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments Shimon Shkury, President, Ariel Property Advisors, Co-Founder, Arlington Equity Group Peter Sotloff, Managing Member & CIO, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies

Development Forum: Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Coast of New Jersey Adam Altman, Managing Member, KABR Group Peter D’Arcy, President, New York City & Long Island, M & T Bank Jeffrey Levine, Chairman & CEO, Douglaston Development, Levine Builders Joe McMillan, Chairman & CEO, DDG Alan Suna, CEO, Silvercup Studios, Principal, Silvercup Properties Josh Zegen, Managing Member & Co-Founder, Madison Realty Capital

11 | july 17, 2015

The Takeaway“As the CMBS market underwent volatility in June, loan losses showed some month-over-month sta-bility,” said Sean Barrie, an analyst with Trepp. “Fifty six loans were closed with losses exceeding 2 per-cent in June, yielding an average loss severity of 55.91 percent. June’s average severity for losses greater than 2 percent is only 29 basis points less than May’s average severity. The Government Property Advisors Portfolio saw the largest realized loss in June, with the $89.78 million multiproperty loan in-curring a loss over $37.9 million. Industrial loans saw the highest cumulative loss severity of all major property types with a severity of 78.5 percent. Office loans had the fourth-highest cumulative severity, but they saw over $175 million cut from their loans, the highest monetary amount of any property sec-tor in June.”

Source:

Date Loan Count Loan Balance Realized Losses Loss SeverityJanuary-12 136 1,163,168,342 619,140,297 53.23

February-12 68 560,489,238 224,605,118 40.07 March-12 73 759,652,992 313,914,562 41.32

April-12 121 1,172,191,687 608,972,910 51.95 May-12 135 1,295,380,725 718,905,858 55.50 June-12 126 1,037,211,761 511,270,053 49.29 July-12 141 988,048,484 520,722,842 52.70

August-12 118 1,198,609,002 764,874,825 63.81 September-12 137 1,061,240,749 574,775,450 54.16

October-12 99 996,814,478 575,479,875 57.73 November-12 136 1,210,200,882 744,963,950 61.56 December-12 97 842,525,594 488,570,902 57.99

January-13 120 871,321,068 509,250,687 58.45 February-13 60 801,534,307 426,286,808 53.18

March-13 58 670,358,237 334,685,726 49.93 April-13 104 1,436,442,517 740,052,032 51.52 May-13 70 682,012,767 407,085,434 59.69 June-13 96 1,119,314,765 704,424,337 62.93 July-13 110 1,773,451,736 891,072,636 50.25

August-13 61 776,306,573 442,551,642 57.01 September-13 75 672,710,355 374,740,010 55.71

October-13 56 871,531,148 369,697,049 42.42 November-13 91 1,072,260,517 578,670,881 53.97 December-13 80 1,165,235,417 646,018,627 55.44

January-14 74 1,205,480,049 745,755,870 61.86 February-14 114 2,589,835,745 1,208,909,802 46.68

March-14 74 1,887,186,139 1,024,482,375 54.29 April-14 48 566,668,600 333,449,178 58.84 May-14 64 859,443,048 499,296,654 58.10 June-14 63 835,154,938 421,327,735 50.45 July-14 49 542,093,149 367,342,727 67.76

August-14 76 703,073,717 370,365,746 52.68 September-14 88 1,631,327,152 1,025,720,489 62.88

October-14 57 666,948,449 420,320,330 63.02 November-14 51 639,338,091 384,180,831 60.09 December-14 55 527,128,655 335,177,484 63.59

January-15 60 823,258,219 448,792,363 54.51 February-15 28 317,982,350 193,967,096 61.00

March-15 30 257,507,653 189,386,052 73.55 April-15 29 395,711,721 179,119,140 45.27 May-15 76 1,027,812,728 577,615,342 56.20 June-15 56 681,558,674 381,082,865 55.91

12 | july 17, 2015

Q+A

Commercial Observer Finance: Where did you grow up and graduate from?

Mr. Fromm: I spent my earlier years in Brooklyn and moved to Woodmere, N.Y., during high school. I received my bache-lor’s degree from Queens College and J.D. from New York Law School.

How did you get started in debt and equity brokerage?

I met Jordan Roeschlaub, who leads our New York debt and structured finance team, through mutual friends years ago. At the time I was an attorney at a law firm. We spoke about some of the deals we were working on and immediately hit it off. We stayed in touch over the next year or so. At some point I mentioned I was looking to transition to the business side and he sug-gested I join his team. The rest is history.

What does your role at NGKF Capital Markets entail?

Our team raises and structures debt and equity for our clients’ real estate—be it an acquisition, refinancing of an exist-ing asset or the development of a project. Although we focus on the Northeast, spe-cifically New York, we follow our clients nationally. This can entail refinancing an office building in midtown Manhattan, structuring a construction loan in Hudson Yards or working with an institutional owner to recap a large multifamily port-folio in the Midwest. Every day is a chal-lenge; it’s what makes my job so exciting.

What kind of commercial real es-tate deals do you and your team gen-erally target?

Our team represents everyone from in-stitutional clients to old-line real estate families. We have financed everything from ultra-luxury condos in Manhattan to a 1.3-million-square-foot office build-ing and everything in between. With our recent acquisition of Apartment Realty Advisors, we have been executing more multihousing business then we have in the past and that’s been exciting and we’ve expanded our team to have folks

who specialize in this business. That said, our team’s capability and experience coupled with the NGKF platform is second to none. Clients hire us to run an institutional process where we create and use our volume and rela-tionships to ultimately get the best terms for our clients.

What’s the most interesting deal you’ve closed this year that you can talk about?

Every deal I work on is interesting and has its own nuances. We have been working at a breakneck pace closing deals for our cli-ents. We are currently in the market with a lot of volume. Right now we are in the “final round,” refinancing a loan on an office tower where the L.P. is a boxing legend. Earlier this week we closed on the financing of a multi-family property with Freddie Mac and struc-tured a layer of preferred equity to fill out the capital stack. I am currently working on a cash-out refinance of a multifamily prop-erty in Queens and an acquisition loan for an office building in Greenwich, Conn. Without giving too many specifics, we are working on a few large acquisitions in Queens and the Financial District. As you can imagine there is never a dull moment.

Daniel FrommManaging Director with NGKF Capital Markets at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank

Daniel Fromm

321 West 44th Street, New york, Ny 10036

212.755.2400

Damian Ghigliotty Editor

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