MIAMI—Ezra Katz has been navigating real estate cycles for the past 35 years—in Florida and across North America. Katz oversees two companies that operate side-by-side: Aztec Group, which arranges for third-party financing; and affiliate Mayan Properties, which provides direct equity investment sourced from the firm's network of investors and its own principals.

All told, Katz has been involved in transactions across all asset classes totaling in excess of $10 billion. Now, with fresh investment dollars coming off the sidelines once again and developers and buyers hungry for capital, Katz and his team are hard at work on some of the largest projects underway in South Florida, including the development of a new Hyatt Place near Miami International Airport, the CIVICA project in the Miami Health District, and Biscayne Landing in North Miami.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Katz to talk about what Mayan is doing on the capital markets front in part one of this exclusive series. Come back this afternoon for part two of this interview.