Lauren Greenberg, 32

Lauren Greenberg has a scent for success. After five years at Cushman & Wakefield, she followed her senior managers, who shared a vision with Berkadia leadership on how to improve brokerage outcomes in the hospitality space, and jumped to Berkadia’s hotel unit only five months ago.  

Greenberg’s team focuses exclusively on debt and equity transactions for hotels. They broker everything from equity recapitalizations and joint venture acquisitions to construction financings, and renovation financings for single assets and portfolios. 

“It’s been awesome,” said Greenberg of the transition to Berkadia. “The ability to really have this team-oriented, national approach and really coordinate together has been really fruitful in allowing us to advise our clients, and provide more alternatives to them when finding solutions.” 

Greenberg fell in love with commercial real estate during her undergraduate education. She enrolled in Cornell University’s famous School of Hotel Administration, and, from the outset, her interest in commercial real estate finance elipsed the coursework that focused on operations.  

“A whole different avenue of the program opened up to me,” she said. “I love the combination of the analytical finance nature and being able to work on tangible assets, being able to see the evolution of the assets and the submarkets. It’s very interesting.” 

At Berkadia, Greenberg has closed deals for both full-service, high-end resorts and brand-new lifestyle boutique hotels. She credits her experiences at Cushman & Wakefield  for teaching her how to step into the shoes of both debt and equity players on any deal at Berkadia. 

“Being able to put on different hats and see a deal from different angles is really helpful,” she said.