Stephen Rosenberg

There’s plenty of room for this particular “Grey” area on this year’s list. 

Greystone completed an impressive $13.3 billion of originations this past year, with deals including arranging the $425 million construction loan for BLDG Management Company’s The Orchard — the largest residential tower in Long Island City, Queens — and the provision of $137 million in Fannie Mae financing for 10 multifamily properties across three states. The latter was, ahem, delivered via Fannie’s “bulk delivery” option — a structured option to finance multiple single-asset multifamily properties for the same sponsor, with an option to both substitute or add properties as collateral. 

In a trying year, Greystone dug deeper to help clients through the volatility by both providing and negotiating financing, bringing in its Cushman & Wakefield partners on sales, or tapping its special servicing team for distressed scenarios. 

“Even though everyone’s numbers were down this year, and ours were as well, our market share grew significantly,” Stephen Rosenberg said. “That’s due to the fact that we never see ourselves as a product provider or a commodity provider. We’re always asking what we can do in addition to the product that we’re offering that allows us to differentiate ourselves — and it’s this kind of environment that allows us to do that. When money was easy and cheap at 3 percent, it really was a commodity. Those who had dinners or went golfing [with clients] got the deals. Now, it’s very different. It doesn’t matter how good a golfer you are. It’s what you can do out of the box.”

With capital stacks increasingly hard to fill amid the rising rate environment, the firm also launched its preferred equity platform in October to fill gaps, adding new borrowers to its client list in the process — especially those who took out floating-rate bridge loans in the past few years and are now faced with refinancing at a higher rate. 

“The new permanent loan that they’ll get is not going to cover that bridge loan. Those borrowers need pref equity and extra help — and I think we’re the ‘extra help’ guys,” Rosenberg said. 

The firm currently ranks as the No. 4 agency lender by volume, and also the top multifamily and health care lender in volume for HUD-insured loans. 

In September, Greystone hired Debby Jenkins, previously the head of Freddie Mac’s multifamily business. Jenkins and Mordecai Rosenberg — Rosenberg’s son — were named Greystone’s co-presidents of lending in February and will be shaping the firm’s lending strategy for 2024. 

The firm continues to walk the walk in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, with the Greystone DEI Committee being named a top 10 company-wide employee resource group (ERG) by the Global ERG Network at the 2023 Diversity Impact Awards last October.