Justin Godner, 29

Justin Godner has been interested in commercial real estate for as long as he can remember. As a little boy, he’d sit and watch his parents direct a home renovation and become transfixed by the process of building and development. 

“I’d sit outside all day and watch the excavation and watch them do the foundation, and I was almost mesmerized by the process of building something people could live in,” recalled Godner. “By the age of 16, I was sure I wanted to do something in finance, and I liked development because it had a construction and design component as well.”

He studied economics and real estate at Syracuse University, and then attended Georgetown’s executive master’s program devoted to real estate finance. Today, he works at Lancewood Capital, a family office investment firm in Greenwich, Conn., that focuses on financing, originating and acquiring first-lien commercial real estate debt.

“I’m responsible for the origination, structuring, underwriting and servicing of both lender finance opportunities and direct first-lien bridge lending opportunities in the $2 million to $50 million space,” explained Godner.

The biggest deal he’s done to date is co-founding in 2020 the firm’s lender financing platform, which helps provide more efficient and flexible senior financing to alternative first-lien real estate lenders and note buyers. The lender finance space was a business historically conducted by banks, but the dislocation in the credit markets has allowed for Godner’s firm to establish relationships with many lenders. Godner has since then established more than 25 lender finance relationships on behalf of the family office. 

In the past 12 months, he’s closed a $60 million credit facility with a New York lender, a $45 million credit facility with a Florida-based lender, and more than $135 million worth of one-off lender finance investments. 

“The key to good underwriting is being diligent, being conservative, and being disciplined,” said Godner.