NEW YORK CITY-Meridian Capital Group, LLC, a national real estate finance advisor, has hired two commercial real estate veterans in an effort to strategically expand its presence in equity capital markets and structured finance. The firm has hired Terry Baydala to serve as executive vice president and head of structured finance and Peter Steier as managing director and head of equity capital markets to further the company’s ability to originate and syndicate larger and more complex loans, GlobeSt.com has learned.

“There are a lot of banks out there who don’t participate in the syndicated market in commercial real estate lending, but they want to,” Baydala says, who tells GlobeSt.com that he is spearheading the development of the new structured finance platform, targeting local and regional banks, small- to mid-sized life insurance companies and non-US-based lenders seeking exposure to US commercial real estate. “We can effectively serve as an outsourced syndication desk, both on the buy and sell side for those small banks that don’t have a syndication capability and don’t have access to the syndication market. What I’m bringing to the table is for Meridian is to essentially serve as that outside syndication desk for banks that don’t have that capability.”

Baydala, formerly senior vice president of commercial real estate banking at Anglo Irish Bank, after all, is no stranger to the field. He previously structured and syndicated large commercial real estate loans for the bank, and explains that more deals in the marketplace are increasingly requiring multiple lenders and investors throughout the capital stack.