Michael Lavipour and Jeffrey Fastov

When Mike Lavipour is asked about the secret to Affinius’ success, he points to the diversity of lending products his private credit firm offers. 

In 2025, Affinius specialized in construction lending at varying degrees, with levered or unlevered transactions,
floating-rate construction loans, bridge loans — notably bridge-to-agency financings through its partnership with Capital One — as well some preferred equity in large-scale deals. 

“It was really a mixed bag, but having that diversity of products was really helpful in being able to face the borrower market from the standpoint of asking, ‘What are their needs in the various life cycle stage of assets?’ ’’ said Lavipour, who works closely with Jeffrey Fastov in directing the flow of the firm’s credit. 

In 2025, Affinius’ 40-person team originated 59 transactions totaling $6.9 billion in gross volume, with $2 billion coming out of bridge loans, roughly $4.5 billion from construction financings, $1 billion in core loans and junior bonds, and $800 million in preferred equity. 

Lavipour noted that unlike some years — such as 2021, which was dominated by bridge loans, or 2022, which was all about new development — 2025 couldn’t be pigeonholed into one type of deal.  

“The source of the deals were, broadly speaking, recapitalizations of 2021 and 2022 vintage, either developments or acquisitions from then,” he said. “It was that plus new development activity on sites that had been around for a handful of years, irrespective of loan product or duration.”

Flagship transactions included a $340 million whole loan to Sky Equity Group and the Patel family for the refinancing and completion of 313 Bond Street, a 603-unit multifamily complex in Brooklyn; and a $250 million whole loan to Focus Development and Group Fox to finance the development of Brickell Starlite, a 39-story, 517-unit multifamily tower in Miami.

“Our goal is for our borrowers to make a lot of money, and we try to make it as easy as possible to do so,” said Lavipour.