NEW YORK CITY-Jerry Swartz, a 40-year industry veteran, has formed HKS Capital Partners, a real estate capital advisory firm that will focus on debt and equity finance. His partners and co-founders in the venture are Ayush Kapahi and Jonathan Harrington, both of whom were hired by Swartz at Pergolis & Swartz.

“I started with Sonnenblick-Goldman in 1970, so it’s been about 41 years,” Swartz tells GlobeSt.com. “I spent 35 of those years with my partner Pergolis and it had kind of reached a point in that firm where I had started to spend a lot of time doing transactions with some of the younger people in the firm that I had brought in and I just decided that it seemed to make more sense--that they were interested in doing this and starting a new venture.”

Swartz says that the venture started in earnest in March, quickly taking off leading up to a successful launch in April. “We were able to secure space with clients of mine who are real estate lenders--Aristone Realty Capital--so that worked out great because that gives us an in-house lending position to market to our clients,” he says, “which is great for anyone in the mortgage business.” Aristone is a direct lender, specializing in real estate financing and is led by Todd Lippiatt and Patrick McGrath.