Scott Weiner

Despite contending with heightened market volatility from rising interest rates, Apollo managed to not only match but exceed its yearly origination numbers from 2022.

The private lender executed more than $11 billion of lending volume last year across 75 loans, up from $10 billion in 2022 when interest rates first began to spike. Scott Weiner attributed the success to the partners he works closely with on his team in the firm’s New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, coupled with the team’s sharp focus on balance sheet loans. 

“I think the fact that we all know and trust each other and have been doing this together for a long time is really important,” Weiner said. “It’s a relationship business, and I think people take comfort in when we say we’re going to do something, we do it. And the fact that we’re also more of a balance sheet lender, I think, is also a key differentiator where they know we’re not looking to sell the loan.”

Apollo closed a variety of loans in various asset classes last year, but around 40 percent of its volume was for multifamily and condominium properties, according to Weiner. One of its larger deals was a $230 million first-mortgage construction loan to a joint venture between Property Markets Group and the Carlyle Group to finance a two-building, 517-unit multifamily project in Gowanus, Brooklyn, with 132 of the apartments designed as affordable housing.

Weiner’s team remained active with hospitality loans in 2023, including a $150 million refinance on the recently renovated 774-key Westin New York Grand Central, housed in a Murray Hill building owned by Davidson Kempner and HEI Hotels. 

Apollo was also a major force in the film production sector last year when it originated a $621 million whole loan in August 2023 to a joint venture between Stockbridge Capital and Worth Real Estate Group to finance the construction of The Ranch Lot, a campus with 600,000 square feet of studio space 100 percent pre-leased to Warner Bros. 

Around 50 percent of Apollo’s business involved repeat borrowers for refinancings along with acquisition and construction loans. Weiner noted that Apollo has also generated effective relationships with brokers who have facilitated a number of new clients.

“The business is disintermediated by advisers or brokers who are also effectively clients of ours,” Weiner said. “Even if we haven’t done a loan with that borrower, the broker they’ve hired can speak to our abilities, which has been helpful.”