Keith Hoffman, 36

Keith Hoffman’s commercial real estate finance career kicked off at the ground level with Dwight Capital.

Soon after graduating from Yeshiva University in 2013, Hoffman met brothers Adam and Josh Sasouness at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side shortly before they launched Dwight Capital. The meeting proved influential in Hoffman’s professional trajectory — he became Dwight’s first employee. 

“I didn’t even know then that real estate finance was the right path for me, but after meeting them I believed in them and I believed in their entrepreneurial spirit and vision for Dwight,” Hoffman said. “We started with five guys in a tiny little one-room closet of an office, and then slowly moved into bigger office space every year or two as we continued to outgrow it.”

A dozen years later, Hoffman is an integral part of Dwight’s rapid growth as a versatile private lender, closing more than 125 transactions totaling roughly $2.5 billion of lending volume. 

Hoffman’s biggest deal to date involved a $130 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 223(f) loan in April 2026 for Omega Real Estate Management to refinance its Garden Residences multifamily development in North Miami, Fla. It marked the largest HUD refi for a multifamily property in the entire Southeast. 

Prior to Hoffman’s career with Dwight, he was a standout basketball player at Yeshiva University, where he scored 1,195 points. He said his basketball playing days, and the work ethic involved, helped shape his current career closing CRE loans. 

“I was the first one in, last one out, and that hardworking mentality, which I learned from my parents and grandparents, transferred very well to my commercial real estate financing career,” Hoffman said. “I worked extremely long hours for many, many years and still do to get to where I’m at, so I’ll say basketball certainly put me in the position that I am today, and the hard work that came with it.”