Adam Sasouness and Josh Sasouness

Where traditional lenders in New York City have become more tepid due to volatile market conditions, Dwight Capital has found opportunity to the tune of over $1.5 billion across bridge, construction, HUD-insured and mezzanine loans as well as health care revolving lines of credit from March 1, 2023, to March 1, 2024.

The company’s private REIT, Dwight Mortgage Trust (DMT), in particular has rushed to fill the gap over the past year with a high volume of bridge loans aimed at apartment properties in New York. 

In November of last year, for example, DMT provided a $100 million bridge loan for 224 West 124th Street, a newly built, 19-story apartment building in West Harlem with 51 affordable units. Or, there’s the $75.2 million bridge loan for 210 Clarkson, a similar newly constructed luxury high-rise in Brooklyn that also features 50 affordable units. 

Despite launching four years after brothers Josh and Adam Sasouness founded Dwight Capital in 2014, DMT (originally dubbed Dwight Bridge Fund until rebranding in 2020) has rocketed in growth, recently, accounting for $870 million of the company’s originations during the March 2023 to March 2024 time frame. In time, DMT may regularly overtake Dwight’s other platform in terms of sheer volume, Josh Sasouness said.

“DMT is experiencing moonshot growth and popularity, but even if it grows at twice the rate, it’s going to take a little while to catch up to the other side of the business,” Sasouness said. “Is it going to exceed Dwight Capital down the road? Very possibly — it’s heading in that direction. Dwight Capital is not a stabilized business in any shape or form, but volume has been a bit more limited recently due to rates, whereas DMT acts as a direct solution to the Fed’s actions.”

Dwight’s overall HUD lending volume also hit $1.6 billion over the last fiscal year, awarding it the top ranking that year in multifamily HUD loans from the Federal Housing Authority, beating out perennial rival Greystone. About $1.25 billion of those HUD loans were Green Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) loans, where borrowers can qualify for discounted MIP if they cross an energy efficiency threshold. Dwight had the highest production volume Green MIP loans of any other lender this past fiscal year. 

A majority of the nearly 70 loans Dwight closed from March 1, 2023, to March 1, 2024, were in multifamily, though health care also makes up a significant portion of its lending platform, which Josh Sasouness said is continually growing. In January, Dwight began offering working capital revolving lines of credit for health care and senior housing financing, with its first two lines closing that month.