Andrew DiPietro.
Andrew DiPietro, 34
Director of large loan originations at Barclays
Andrew DiPietro was obsessed with architecture as a kid — so much so that he chose architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house as the subject of a fourth-grade project. That early fascination — coupled with some familiarity with the real estate world through family friends in the industry — steered him into Lehigh University’s real estate program in 2007.
Today, DiPietro is a director in Barclays’ large loan originations group, with an impressive resume of closed deals including the $1.1 billion BXHP 2021-FILM CMBS transaction. Barclays took the lead-left role on the loan to Blackstone and Hudson Pacific Properties for their Class A studio/office portfolio.
The deal featured a vertical risk retention execution — DiPietro’s idea — and closed in only 27 days. The vertical retention structure requires the deal’s issuer to retain 5 percent of the face value of each CMBS tranche, and that strip is held for typically 10 years.
DiPietro joined Barclays seven years ago after spending four years in JPMorgan’s commercial real estate banking group, which introduced him to the basics of lending, including cradle-to-grave construction financing. “I was seeing that loan from start to finish over a 36-month period,” he said. “It was a great entry point to the space I’m in today.”
As he sought to expand his expertise, the opportunity at Barclays arose, giving him his first foray into the heady world of CMBS. He interviewed with Spencer Kagan and Steve Caldwell and, as they say in the U.K., “Bob’s your uncle.” The learning curve was steep, but the ample deal flow gave him plenty of chances to quickly perfect his craft.
The past few years have been a market roller coaster ride, but, paradoxically, while the world was shutting down in the depths of COVID, growth opportunities were opening up for DiPietro. He stepped into an originator loan at Barclays in 2020, springing into action when the CMBS market rebounded late in the year, and riding its highs and lows since.
In addition to his career, DiPietro has a busy home life. He’s father to a 2-year-old son and has twins on the way. He describes fatherhood as a life-changing experience, and something that’s helping him in his career, too. “The way I have to structure my life as a father has made me more productive in other ways. And clearly I have a lot more to work for now, too.”— C.C.
