Nailah Flake, Andrea Balkan, and John Lee

In chaotic times, Brookfield Real Estate Finance, led by Andrea Balkan, Nailah Flake and John Lee, offers perhaps the most desirable attribute in commercial real estate today: stability.

“Brookfield’s competitive advantage is our ability to deliver certainty of execution for our borrowers, and to focus on large transactions that need certainty of execution and surety of closure,” said Flake.

Brookfield Real Estate Finance, which boasts an all-woman managing partner team, racked up a total of $1.8 billion in originations in 2023, including a $420 million whole loan financing for the construction of a 38-story luxury residential condominium with 330 units. Perhaps most impressive is that they were able to execute the loan in a compressed time frame.

“That transaction speaks to our ability to close on a construction loan in an environment where there’s less liquidity in the bank market for construction loans, and our ability to take it down as a whole loan and deliver to the borrower kind of a one-stop-shop execution,” said Flake. “We’ve also done this on even larger transactions.”

Flake cites a $1 billion revolving credit facility to a fund of funds whereby, she said, “We closed on $1 billion, held $400 million as the investment for the fund vehicle, and then sold down vertical slices to some co-
investors and Brookfield entities in order to successfully get that exposure, and our fund, down from $1 billion to $400 million.

“That was a transaction that [demonstrated] our ability to close on a billion-
dollar deal in a very short time frame,” she added. “This allowed us to be one of very few organizations who could move quickly to get that transaction done.”

The team has plans to launch a new fund toward the end of 2024, and Brookfield plans to continue to identify efforts to invest in much-needed housing stock.

“We still think there’s an opportunity to invest in transactions with borrowers who are either acquiring or developing multifamily,” said Flake. “We’re constantly monitoring just how aggressive cap rates are in [markets with a prominent need for housing]. There’s no shortage of opportunity to make good debt investments in multi-family.”