Derby Lane Debuts With $5B Lending Capacity
The firm will focus chiefly on office-to-residential conversion opportunities.
Derby Lane Partners, an investment management company focusing on credit opportunities, has launched with up to $1.8 billion in capital commitments.
Anchor partners include BTG Pactual, funds management by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, Koch Real Estate Investments, Liberty Mutual Investments, as well as Silver Creek Capital Management and Stable.
Adam Piekarski, formerly co-head of real estate credit at BDT & MSD Partners, launched Derby Lane, now serving as the new company’s founder, CEO & CIO.
Piekarski noted that the creation of Derby Lane is meant to capitalize on lower property values and clearer market fundamentals, which have created the best lending scene in more than a decade, Bloomberg reported. The firm is expected to have a lending capacity north of $5 billion.
READ ALSO: Where Are Office-to-Apartment Conversions Happening—and Why?
Derby Lane is bullish on office-to-residential conversions, and just last month, it provided $62.4 million for the adaptive reuse of a Chicago workplace property, set to bring online 252 multifamily units. However, Piekarski commented that the company will change its strategy based on market shifts, according to Bloomberg.
During his tenure at BDT & MSD Partners, he oversaw, among other deals, the 2023 financing of a 96-unit condo project in Bonita Springs, Fla., but also the debt provided for the acquisition and redevelopment of 25 Water St. in Manhattan, N.Y., which would later become one of the largest office-to-residential conversions in the nation.
Derby Lane’s crew members
Other Derby Lane senior members include Partner Kory Klebanoff, previously co-head of East Coast originations at ACORE Capital, Partner & CFO Urian Yap, formerly CFO at Madison Realty Capital, as well as Managing Directors Matt Doneth and Heecheol Pak, who previously served at Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, respectively.
Some of their previous deals include a $53 million senior construction loan, which ACORE issued earlier this year to Fisher Brothers to build and expand an experiential retail and entertainment complex in Las Vegas, as well as Madison Realty Capital’s $80 million bankruptcy acquisition of an asset in Queens, N.Y., last year.
