Abbe Franchot-Borok

In 2024, nonbanks had the opportunity to step up to the plate, and BGO didn’t walk away without a hit. 

“Last year was definitely an active year for us. It was still a pretty volatile market, but we saw an improvement relative to 2023, in terms of our ability to have a little bit more certainty about where the market’s going,” Abbe Franchot Borok said. “We continue to see the trend of alternative lenders becoming more relevant and accepted as providers of real estate debt capital in the markets. Given the breadth of BGO’s platform across equity and debt, we felt like we were able to step into that space and provide creative financing solutions for our borrowers, regardless of some of the volatility in the macro environment.”

Borok’s team originated $1.5 billion in loans last year across the U.S. and Europe with a focus on value-add lending — acquisition, bridge and construction loans— as well as core senior lending. 

“We also reached full investment on our first U.S. debt fund in the U.S. — a milestone for the business as a whole — and are really proud of our team’s ability to continue to be a relevant and dependable lender for our borrowers and the market,” Borok said. 

Eighty percent of BGO’s loan portfolio comprises residential assets (multifamily, build-to-rent, student housing, senior housing and for-sale housing) and industrial (both dry and cold storage). 

As banks retrenched from the market, BGO stepped up to fill voids. 

“We’ve been a very active construction lender over the last 12 to 18 months,” Borok said. “We continue to focus on asset classes where we have a house view that those assets will continue to perform despite the volatility, such as residential and industrial.” 

The team prides itself on its ability to offer borrowers certainty of execution, nimbleness and the ability to address a borrower’s business plan nuances with flexibility and creativity. The ability to draw from BGO’s expansive infrastructure and data points around its $83 billion in assets under management also comes in handy. 

“I think our borrowers genuinely appreciate BGO’s reach and knowledge of the U.S. real estate markets, and our ability to be a partner, on either the equity or the debt side,” Borok said. “We continue to grow our debt platform with a focus on providing debt financing and debt capital to groups that we’re partnering with across the platform, whether that’s operating partners on our equity side, or working in asset classes where we have really deep expertise, like cold storage.” 

Borok also lauded the BGO culture. “We spend a lot of time on it, and are really proud of the culture of collaboration that we’ve created across the firm,” she said. 

And, with that culture in place and the stars aligned for another robust year of nonbank lending, there’s no stopping BGO. 

“We’re in growth mode, and it’s an exciting time,” Borok said.