Brannon Hamblen (clockwise from top left), Mike Moran, Richard Smith, and Greg Newman.
Brannon Hamblen, Mike Moran, Greg Newman and Richard Smith
President; executive managing director; senior managing director; senior managing director at Bank OZK
Last year's rank: 10
For Bank OZK, 2024 was about keeping pace with a reputation it has made as one of the premier players in national construction lending.
While the bank didn’t duplicate its 2022 performance — when it originated a bank record $13.8 billion in commercial real estate loans — it still topped $5.6 billion in originations.
“Interest rates seemed to be sticky, certainly it slowed down, no doubt about that, equity guys got a little more tight on funding deals, and I think we saw that pipeline slim down throughout the year,” said Mike Moran. “But, overall, given the volatility to the market and change to the political landscape in the U.S., we did a great job. Our stakeholders were very happy with where we ended up.”
And how can they not be? The bank’s current portfolio stands at $32.3 billion across 319 active commercial real estate loans, with some of the biggest construction projects in the entire industry attached to its balance sheet.
Notable transactions included a $215 million senior loan to build Fan Pier, a 122-unit condo in Boston; a $98 million senior loan to build the Edison, a 378-unit, 22-story luxury apartment in Milwaukee; and a massive $425 million senior construction loan to build the Waldorf Astoria in Miami, an innovative luxury hotel and condo, holding 387 units and 205 keys in a 100-story building shaped like a stack of children’s blocks that soars 1,049 feet into the air.
“It would be the tallest building in Miami, so we had to get comfortable with the construction theme,” said Greg Newman. “But, in a higher interest rate environment, we don’t change our standards of underwriting and that just means low leverage.”
The bank largely plays in the sub-$125 million range, where 75 percent of its originations reside, while an additional 18 percent of its originations fall between $120 million and $150 million apiece.
“In the way we view deals and figure out how much we should lend on a construction deal, it moves with what’s happening in the landscape and the environment,” said Moran. “We try to be in the market at all times.”
