Josh Greene.
Josh Greene, 29
Managing director at Maxim Capital Group
If Josh Greene could pick one New York City neighborhood in which to invest in housing right now, it would be Flushing in Queens.
“I think it’s amazing. There’s been so much growth in Flushing,” he said. “It’s one of those communities that’s been insulated from what’s going on. It stands alone; it doesn’t rise and fall with everything else.”
The Queens enclave is a long way from Westport, Conn., where Greene grew up. But he visited the city often as a teenager and worked there during summers while attending Indiana University. “I always knew I wanted to work, live and be a part of New York,” he said. “Being from a nearby suburb drew me there.”
During his senior year in college, the equity shop Greene interned with launched a bridge lending platform, and they invited him to be an analyst on it. Soon he was working with two real estate investment trusts and with $500 million under management.
Six years ago, Greene joined Maxim Capital Group, where he runs the day-to-day portion of its loan origination department with $2 billion under management in places like San Francisco, Nashville, Charlotte and South Florida. Greene recently completed an $86 million construction loan with JDS Development, which needed money to start the foundation of a building in Miami. At the same time, he has been working on another $86 million loan with a developer who wants to open a hotel on Flushing’s Northern Boulevard and has already built seven stories.
“We love coming in and completing a construction project,” Greene said. “The developer will take us out with a permanent loan with the hotel once he establishes an operating history.”
That project has led to frequent visits to Asian Jewels, one of Greene’s favorite restaurants (he’s partial to rice rolls with shrimp or beef). He also found time to travel to Spain in September and took short jaunts to Mexico and the Bahamas, where he encountered crypto guys taking meetings in the basement of his hotel.
“I didn’t understand it,” he said. “I love being in the real estate business. We’re dealing with tangible assets, it doesn’t move that quickly, and it’s regulated.” —A.S.
