Ronnie Gul, Raphael Fishbach and Steve Fried

With a leadership team that’s been together for almost 15 years —  Ronnie Gul and Steve Fried joined the company in 2005, Raphael Fishbach in 2010 — Mesa West achieved $1.1 billion in originations by capitalizing on its status as a private lender at a time when bank financing has been in retreat.

“We’re taking advantage of the shortage of capital and the banks pulling back, and we’re seeing new opportunities because of it that we’re taking advantage of,” said Fried of loans that break down around 50-50 between multifamily and industrial. “One example is we’re continuing to lend on high-quality real estate and core markets with strong sponsors, but we’ve also layered in some industrial construction. Banks are now showing up at very low leverage at 50 percent, so we have an opportunity to step in and offer higher leverage and charge more for that.”

Fishbach adds that their immersion into construction financing has presented Mesa West with exciting new challenges.

“Identifying the supply and demand imbalance, particularly in construction financing, has been an interesting way for us to take advantage of the market,” said Fishbach. “One deal that comes to mind is a northern Pennsylvania industrial construction deal we did with two institutional sponsors where we are able to earn good yield by taking risk that was normally reserved for banks in past cycles. We were able to earn more by taking the same level of risk that the traditional sources of capital would.” 

But, with the prospect of lower rates on the (hopefully sooner than later) horizon, Gul believes that opportunities will still shine for Mesa West even when banks begin their thaw from financing hibernation.

“Our track record over 20 years shows that regardless of whether rates are high or low and whether liquidity is strong or weak, we’ve been able to successfully deploy capital and manage through cycles,” said Gul. “We don’t think the opportunity is going to materially change if rates come in.”