Tim Gallagher and Matt Petrula

Matt Petrula is quick to point out the malaise that many lenders have experienced lately as fickle market conditions drive slower financing demand in sectors throughout the country. 

Still, with a total of $12 billion in originations last year, M&T has managed to ride out the storm, at least partly because of its status as one of the nation’s top-ranked servicers of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-backed loans.

Several high-profile construction loans for luxury apartments in New York City led the financing pack for the firm over the past year. The largest, and most complicated, according to Petrula, was the $425 million loan to New York-based BLDG Management for the development of The Orchard, a 69-story, 824-unit luxury rental building in Queens’ Long Island City neighborhood. When completed, The Orchard will be the tallest tower in the borough.

Another is a $155 million construction loan to a Brodsky Organization-led joint venture for the development of a nine-story, 350-unit residential building in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, which will also feature 20,000 square feet of retail. 

M&T’s agency and life insurance lending affiliate, M&T Realty Capital Corporation, has also done much of the heavy lifting lately, accounting for about half of M&T’s originations last year, Petrula said. 

Yet the bank isn’t content with simply staying the course as it looks toward future business opportunities. To that end, M&T is in the process of developing a dedicated affordable housing team, set to launch this year. Although affordable housing is a sector M&T has dipped its toes into before, the lender saw a need for a committed arm to grow its affordable portfolio, Petrula said. 

“[Affordable housing] is a nuanced business that you really need to understand well if you’re going to build on it, so I think it makes sense to have a dedicated team calling on those customers and familiar with their local markets and who those customers are,” Petrula said. “The bank has always been passionate about our commitment to the communities we serve and doing the right thing, and this feels like a great extension of that. And, although it’s not a new business to us, it’ll be a new concerted effort in that space.”