Clockwise from top left: Adam Schwartz, Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, and Jonathan Schwartz.
Adam Schwartz, Aaron Appel, Jonathan Schwartz and Keith Kurland
Senior managing directors and co-heads of New York capital markets at Walker & Dunlop
Last year's rank: 30
The Walker & Dunlop team executed 84 transactions comprising $4.4 billion of volume in the past months, with debt and equity placements from coast to coast.
“High-quality advisers are more valuable than ever in a market that has uncertainty,” Adam Schwartz said. “In volatile times, advisers become an extension of their clients, in helping them figure out how to manage difficult situations.”
Notable deals negotiated by the team included a $60 million loan for The Falls at Crimson Commons, an apartment complex in Mesa, Ariz; $83 million in construction financing for Lincoln Equities Group and PCCP’s industrial development in Morris Plains, N.J.; and a $158 million refinance from Affinius Capital and Clarion Partners for Bridge Investment Group and Lowe Property Group’s Post District mixed-use development in Downtown Salt Lake City.
The fab foursome also kept busy in the hottest market of the year, South Florida, arranging $118 million in construction financing for Fisher Brothers’ Wynhouse Miami and $127 million for Terra and New Valley’s Natura Gardens, a market-rate community in northwestern Miami-Dade County.
While the interest rate disruption stymied some firms’ activity this past year, “We’ve picked up a lot of business because of the disruption,” Aaron Appel said. “Through our network and through referrals, we’ve had people coming to us and saying, ‘Look, we’ve never worked together, but we’ve seen what we’ve done,’ or ‘We were referred to you by XYZ client,’ and we’ve picked up a whole lot of business that way from some very prominent and large-scale institutional developers.”
The team also stepped in at the 11th hour when borrowers were left at the altar by their prospective lenders. “We had a client who gave an assignment to another firm,” Keith Kurland said. “That deal fell apart 10 days before close, and within 15 days, we picked the deal back up and got signed up with a new lender, bailing that group out of a tough spot. That’s the type of thing that proves our capability and pays dividends for years to come from a loyalty perspective. It makes a client for life.”
“These are markets where we view ourselves as an elite team that has been through cycles and clients really appreciate that,” Jonathan Schwartz concurred. “We manage expectations and advise clients as to what is achievable. We’ve only picked up market share as a result.”
