Ben Kroll.
Ben Kroll, 28
Director of debt and structured finance at Newmark
Ben Kroll clicked with the tangible aspect of real estate when he was attending the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He has been a member of the Newmark debt and equity platform since 2020, and it has been quite a journey.
“Being on the younger side of [the team] was like an invaluable learning experience,” Kroll said.
His broader responsibilities include helping facilitate all aspects of Newmark’s debt and equity capital-raising process, the origination of new business opportunities, deal marketing, structuring, and closing. But Kroll also focuses on discovering financing and investment opportunities, which means identifying owners, operators and developers across the country that the Newmark team might work with.
The biggest deal of his career so far was in 2019, when Kroll worked closely with some of his firm’s distressed positions, including the Row NYC hotel. The Newmark team held various positions throughout the capital structure when the New York City hospitality market was under tremendous duress. Such challenges involve many moving parts, which Kroll says he likes.
“Engaging with different investors, lenders, clients, being able to have a perspective on what everyone’s working on and being on the forefront of where the industry is moving is incredibly exciting,” Kroll said.
Interestingly, one such direction is the express car wash business, which Kroll says is a fascinating product to work on among various asset categories. “It’s attracted a variety of institutional capital, from private equity and hedge funds to capital even outside of the real estate realm,” he said.
Outside of work, Kroll is a fan of Buffalo sports, particularly the Bills and the Sabres. —E.F.
