Sean Bastian.
Sean Bastian, 26
Director at Walker & Dunlop
Sean Bastian is a key member of the New York-based debt and equity capital markets team at Walker & Dunlop, a group that was brought into the fold and formed just prior to the pandemic to bolster the firm’s large loan and capital-raising advisory efforts.
Bastian works directly alongside W&D’s Michael Ianno, leading a team of analysts and support staff, and overseeing underwriting efforts and crafting the storylines behind each deal. He’s one of a handful of debt and equity aces that makes up the team led by Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland and brothers Jonathan and Adam Schwartz. The group joined W&D in early 2020 when their indy brokerage firm, AKS Capital Partners, was acquired by the Washington, D.C.-based financier. The group had left JLL and formed AKS just mere months before W&D swooped in.
You’ll find this group, which has originated around $18 billion since 2019, involved in some of the largest and most high-profile deals in New York City and beyond. These include the roughly $807 million bridge loan on the retail condominium within Midtown’s Crown Building that closed before the pandemic, as well as the $664 million deal on Brooklyn’s tallest building, 9 Dekalb Avenue. More recently, Bastian has been involved in the $164 million refinancing of The Goodtime Hotel, a new luxury hotel in Miami Beach, as well as the $300 million construction financing on The Mather senior housing project in Tysons, Va.
Bastian and his team have built up about $4.5 billion in deal volume year-to-date and have another $2 billion to $3 billion under contract that should close by the end of the year, he said.
While he has seen myriad deals come across his desk in his time as part of his current team, construction financing is what piques his interest, he said. “[It’s about] how you select the site and what goes into the entitlements and zoning and everything that leads up to us securing financing for that building, seeing the vision the developer has and then going out into capital markets.”—M.B.
