Mike Tepedino’s Blue Light Capital Bolsters Credit Lending Arm With New Hires

Mike Tepedino’s new CRE lending firm Blue Light Capital has secured the services of three veteran investment professionals to bolster its commercial real estate credit arm. 

Tepedino announced June 20 that Jeremy Burton and Tristine Lim, formerly of Needham Point Capital, have joined Blue Light Credit — the debt investment arm of Blue Light Capital that aims to purchase distressed credit notes and make middle market bridge loans for core plus properties. 

Burton will serve as partner and head of originations, while Lim will work as head of credit and underwriting at the new firm. The two professionals have a combined 36 years of collective experience originating and acquiring commercial real estate loans, according to Tepedino. 

“Jeremy’s been in the business for 14 years, he’s got a credit background, it’s all he’s ever done, he’s bought whole loans, and he’s got a real origination capabilities — it’s what his skill set is,” Trepedino told CO. “Tristine has a credit training background, an underwriting background, and a hospitality background, so the two of them have complementary skill sets.” 

“It’s nice to have a credit guy and an origination guy in the mix,” he added with a laugh.  

Greg Manocherian, founder of RoeHoldings LLC, a private CRE investment and development company, and a member of the Manocherian Family, owner of PanAm Equities, is also coming on board Blue Light Capital as a partner. 

PanAm Equities is among the largest privately held real estate owners in New York City. 

“They’re a significant player with a significant portfolio,” said Tepedino. “What Greg and his team brings is, if we’re buying stuff on the distressed credit side, they have the ability to look through things with the eyes of an equity owner. They know what it costs and can share those benefits of having operational expertise.” 

Tepedino founded Blue Light Capital in 2023, after a long career at JLL Capital Markets. He saw a CRE landscape littered with dislocated equity markets, distressed credit markets, and banks pulling back on all fronts from CRE lending. He viewed Blue Light Capital – and now Blue Light Credit – as a vehicle that can provide both bridge loans for core assets and acquire distressed loan sale notes in the $15 million and $75 million for core properties and traditional assets in top 30 markets. 

Tepedino said that most of the biggest lenders and debt funds in the market “don’t want to fuss” with the sub $75 million space and that the price point seemed like an opportunity for his business model. 

“There’s firms that do either one or the other [making bridge loans and buying distressed notes], but very few do both,” he said. “Buying distressed credit and doing bridge loans on core properties and on transitional assets — we think we’ve got a product the market can use and we ought to deploy the capital.”

The additions of Lim and Burton bring the firm’s employee roster to six people. The firm has targeted $300 to $500 million in transactional volume in the coming year, according to Tepedino. 

“We’re going to grow and as we grow and start putting money out we’ll blow the team up,” he added.  

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com