The commercial real estate lender FundCore Finance Group is teaming up with Cohen & Co., an investment banking firm in New York, to form a CRE conduit lender.
The venture will start funding loans this quarter. It will focus on writing five-to-10-year fixed-rate loans between $5 million and $75 million on all property types. These loans will be securitized.
The venture will have production offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, with trading and securitization activities managed in New York.
FundCore started business in August 2009, founded by some former executives at Merrill Lynch Mortgage Lending and the co-founders of Black Creek Group, of which FundCore is an affiliate.
While at Merrill Lynch, the team originated and securitized about 2,000 loans totaling $44 billion in the U.S. and Canada.
