Hilary Provinse
Executive vice president in production and capital markets at Berkadia
Last year's rank: 30
In a world of financial instability, there’s something refreshing, if not reassuring, about the business model of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, which is co-owned through a joint venture by Jefferies Financial Group and Warren Buffet’s indomitable Berkshire Hathaway.
Last year, led by Hilary Provinse, Berkadia originated $39 billion across investment sales, mortgage banking and equity transactions. Berkadia kept a persistent focus on housing, as multifamily, affordable housing, senior housing and student housing encompassed 81 percent of the firm’s lending volume between March 2024 and March 2025.
“We’ve obviously been on a hell of a run, and a lot had to do with the investments we’ve made into people and talent,” said Provinse. “The company is 15 years old, and we’ve just grown on this nice trajectory, as it relates to the team.”
When breaking down Berkadia’s 2024 activity, the firm made $25 billion in total loan originations, of which $15 billion came from its agency production (which accounted for 54 percent of the firm’s 1,137 loans). Berkadia also completed $14 billion in investment sales volume across more than 500 commercial real estate transactions.
“We’ve been strong in mortgage banking for years, but where we’re really seeing the slope of our growth is in investment sales,” said Provinse. “Some of the teams we brought in the last five years really hit their stride.”
Berkadia’s chief cited the firm’s mortgage banking and investment sales teams in Washington, D.C., South Florida, Phoenix and Southern California as the ones that helped accelerate growth across both brokerage divisions.
Top deals on the brokerage side that helped define 2024 for Berkadia included a $400 million loan from Madison Realty Capital to finance construction of Six Fisher Island, a 50-unit luxury condo on Miami’s Fisher Island; and $328 million from Bank OZK to build Baccarat Residences, another Miami condo that’s already 95 percent sold even though it won’t be completed until 2028.
In Provinse’s mind, in an era of enhanced liquidity, the value of mortgage brokers has never been higher. “We did deals with 200 different capital sources last year, and depending on the transaction you need to find the right fit,” she explained. “There’s lots of sources of capital, and we have connections to all of them.”
