Silverstein Properties Breaks Into Lending

By Miriam Hall | Bisnow New York

Silverstein Properties is expanding its reach into debt, establishing a venture that will allow the developer to offer loans for real estate projects. Silverstein has partnered with a sovereign wealth fund and a pension fund, which are providing the bulk of capital for the venture, called Silverstein Capital Partners, Bloomberg reports.

Silverstein CEO Marty Burger would not name the funds. He said the loans will begin at $25M, and there will be no maximum. There are already deals in the pipeline, but Burger would not say how much capital the partners have in total. He pegged the annual returns at between 10% and 15%. “There were a lot of banks that couldn’t handle the loans,” Burger told Bloomberg. “We’re a developer at heart, and we usually do very large projects, and we found that there was just a gap in the financing markets where there were large loans needed for complicated projects.” As banks have tightened up on loans, several developers have stepped into the lending space.

New York’s Moinian Group launched a lending arm last year, joining players like RXR Realty — which teamed up with a Canadian pension fund earlier this year to expand its lending capacity — Madison Realty Capital and Related. Silverstein Capital Partners will lend on all types of projects. Former CCRE CEO Michael May will be its president.