Adam Tantleff (left), Brian Shatz (center), and Josh Zegen.
Josh Zegen, Brian Shatz and Adam Tantleff
Managing principals and co-founders; managing principal of investor relations at Madison Realty Capital
Last year's rank: 67
Josh Zegen and his fellow generals, Brian Shatz and Adam Tantleff, have turned Madison Realty Capital into that rare private credit firm that now goes head to head with institutional banks on the largest loans in commercial real estate.
“Last year we really added bank-like products, and what we found was this opportunity provided lower-leverage construction lending and lower-leverage transition lending that literally competed with banks,” said Zegen.
The deals speak for themselves. Madison provided Dezer Development $630 million to build a 61-story, Bentley-branded condo on Sunny Isles Beach, an oceanside hamlet 11 miles north of Miami Beach, in what was South Florida’s largest construction deal in 2025.
Madison zeroed in on hospitality construction financing in 2025, providing Related Group and BH Land with $200 million to build a Ritz-Carlton-branded condo in West Palm Beach, Fla.; and working with KSL Capital to deliver Tidal Real Estate Partners with $372 million to build a new 261-room Edition hotel with 64 luxury residences in Nashville, Tenn.
“We understand construction lending, we understand it from a real estate standpoint, and we’re able to provide a customized product,” said Zegen.
There was also the $720 million construction loan to Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft and David Werner for their office-to-residential conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, a development that will deliver 1,602 apartments across two buildings and serve as New York City’s largest office-to-resi project to date.
“On the Pfizer deal, there were quotes for just the senior loan, or just the mezzanine — we were able to say to Nathan Berman and David Werner, ‘We’ll do it for the full $720 million, and we’ll close that in 60 to 90 days,’ ” said Zegen. “Very few can do that on balance sheet and get that done.”
Not for nothing, the firm’s subsidiary Churchill provides warehouse lines to private credit funds and residential transitional loans to investors. It did $6 billion in business last year.
“The fact is that we have a lot of different products that address separate parts of the market and make us very relevant today,” said Zegen.
The Stories Behind the List
