Last July, Arbor CFO Rick Herbst told GlobeSt.com he anticipated that within a year, the REIT, organized in 2003, would become a public company and be on the road to raising $1 billion in assets over the next three years. At the time, the firm had just completed a private financing that combined with a concurrent equity contribution by Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC totaled approximately $165 million.

Now Herbst notes that the firm is "well ahead of that $1-billion goal." He says the market has been very receptive to Arbor product and that there hasn't been as much competition as company officials had originally thought. "Two-thirds are repeat customers," he tells GlobeSt.com, adding that the company will now have more opportunity to do longer-term loans.

Common stock began trading April 7 on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ABR." Underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional 937,500 shares to cover over-allotments. The offering is expected to close on April 13. Net proceeds will be used for the repayment of indebtedness under an existing credit facility and a master repurchase agreement. The offering was led by Wachovia Securities; UBS Investment Bank and JMP Securities acted as co-managers.