NEW YORK CITY-Finance veteran Michael Mazzei has left Bank of America Merrill Lynch to take the reins as president of Ladder Capital Finance Holdings LLLP, the company unveiled Friday morning. In his new role, Mazzei has been tapped to expand the firm’s asset management business and continue to develop its securitization platform.
With a track record of reducing virtually all of BofA's legacy CMBS assets and re-starting the CMBS 2.0 business, chief executive officer of Ladder Brian Harris describes Mazzei "a peer and a partner," noting that the company “will benefit greatly from his experience and deep product knowledge.”
Mazzei, who previously served as managing director and global head of the CMBS and bank loan syndications groups at BofA, has more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate and capital markets. Prior to that, he developed the commercial real estate finance group for Barclays Capital from the ground up. Earlier, he had worked at Lehman Brothers, where he began with the company’s mortgage trading operation at its inception in 1986, rising to the head of CMBS and subsequently co-head of its real estate investment banking unit.
In a statement upon his departure, Mazzei says he “looks forward to this next chapter in working with the team at Ladder in continuing to building on their success.”
As of year-end 2011, Ladder had approximately $2.6 billion of assets and $1 billion in equity. To date, the company has originated $2.6 billion of loans and contributed more than $1.7 billion to six CMBS transactions.
Notably, the firm recently secured a $150 million, seven-year, fixed-rate first mortgage on 681 Fifth Avenue, an 82,573-square-foot class A mixed-use property anchored by Tommy Hilfiger’s flagship store. Ladder also secured a $45 million, 10-year fixed-rate loan to refinance the existing debt on the Lighthouse International Building at 59th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues.
At the same time of Mazzei’s hire, Greta Guggenheim, Ladder’s co-founder, will become chief investment officer of the company, focusing on origination, investment and distribution activities. “We look forward to the synergies that we expect will result from Mike’s experience and leadership,” she says, in a statement.
The specialty finance company recently relocated to 345 Park Ave. in Manhattan’s Plaza District.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
