Raphael Fishbach, Ronnie Gul and Steve Fried

Mesa West Capital has spent the last year meticulously analyzing compelling opportunities, resulting in a total transaction volume of $2 billion between March 2025 and March 2026.

“We remain disciplined in pursuing transactions where returns are appropriately aligned with risk,” Raphael Fishbach, Ronnie Gul and Steve Fried said in a joint statement to Commercial Observer. “With many traditional lenders continuing to sit on the sidelines, Mesa West is well positioned to do what it has consistently done — provide moderate-leverage financing to strong sponsors in top-tier markets, secured by high-quality real estate.”

The firm focuses its strategy on institutionally owned, high-quality real estate that is sponsored by “top-tier operators.” 

One of the largest transactions Mesa West worked on this year was providing $201.5 million of acquisition debt to a joint venture between Interstate Equities and PGIM for four multifamily properties in Downtown Seattle and in the San Francisco Bay cities of Mountain View, Redwood City and Sunnyvale, Calif.

“That was a competitive process,” Fishbach told Commercial Observer about the $201.5 million deal. “Ultimately, we were successful just given our long relationship with the borrower and being able to provide that certainty of execution. At the end of the day, these are the types of sponsors that have choices on who they want to do business with. And, so, we were able to win something that was very competitive.”

Looking at the rest of 2026, Fishbach couldn’t get specific on what Mesa West has in the works, but he did say to expect a continuation of the kind of activity from the latter part of 2025.

“There’s no denying that there’s challenging economic backdrops and geopolitical tensions, as well as questions about rates and whatnot,” he said. “But we’re still seeing a healthy pipeline and trying to take advantage of opportunities where we think the credit on the pricing makes sense. We are active in the market.”