CHICAGO—Commercial real estate portfolio lender Mesa West Capital has just opened an office in Chicago under the direction of Matthew Snyder who has joined the firm from Wells Fargo's real estate capital markets group. This is the Los Angeles-based firm's third office, having previously opened a New York office in 2010.   

Mesa West provides short-to-medium term first mortgage debt for the acquisition and refinancing of core and value add commercial real estate assets. Company officials say they decided to open a Chicago office due to their increasing lending activities in the Midwest and Denver, especially in the Chicago area.

Mesa West provided Sterling Bay with $220 million to refinance its 1KFulton project in the West Loop. The Chicago-based developer bought the former Fulton Market Cold Storage warehouse in 2012 and renovated it into a 535,000 square-foot office building that Google will soon use as its new regional headquarters.

Furthermore, the company provided $68 million in first mortgage debt to a joint venture of Prudential Real Estate Investors and GlenStar Properties for the recent acquisition of 311 W. Monroe St. The partners plan to reposition the 364,000-square-foot building with a multi-million dollar capital plan and leasing campaign.

Snyder spent five years with Wells Fargo's real estate capital markets group and managed the distribution of more than $25 billion of new issue commercial mortgages into the capital markets. Snyder held similar positions at LaSalle Bank and Bank of America where he handled the structuring, pricing and securitization of more than $100 billion of commercial mortgages and subordinate debt. He graduated with a BA in history and economics from Middlebury College and received an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.