Patrick O’Donnell, 34

Los Angeles native Patrick O’Donnell has been working on the debt and equity side of the real estate business at Colliers, arranging financing for clients to ensure their success.

O’Donnell started his current path with a finance degree from Santa Clara University before dabbling in real estate, eventually becoming a vice president at George Smith Partners. He spent six years there. Later, O’Donnell would move to a senior director role at Tauro Capital Advisors and find his way to Colliers in 2024. While based in the brokerage’s Phoenix office, he recently helped finance the acquisition of a  72,000-square-foot medical office in San Diego as the buyer sought to reposition it through selling off units as condominiums.

“That was a $15.8 million bridge loan where we had a unique structure in which we close with a condo map and then it has a natural paydown structure as condos start to sell,” O’Donnell explained. “We can release that from the collateral that the debt fund has, reducing the loan balance, and eventually paying off that lender over time as condos continue to sell.” He also closed on two debt deals in Phoenix, one being an apartment complex .

In terms of broader market trends, O’Donnell and his team are studying the headwinds.

“I think we’re all watching where rates are going and trying to understand the macroeconomics of what’s going on in the world and how that affects us on a day-to-day basis through both short-term and long-term rates,” O’Donnell said. “We’re trying to stay ahead of that and make sure that we’re advising our clients in a way that sets them up for long-term success with some hedges around interest rate risk — whether that be through interest rate caps, swaps to protect them from floating rates going up, or locking them into shorter-term deals with some flexibility on longer term.”

Flexibility on loan terms and leniency from lenders are the crux of what his Colliers team is looking to provide.