Two Atlanta powerhouses of commercial real estate financial services have merged to create BridgePointe Advisors. Announced this month, the deal unites the former NewBridge Retail Advisors and CREFunding.
The BridgePointe team is comprised of 14 advisors, many of whom hold MBAs and/or have 15 or more years of experience, and a support staff of seven professionals focused on key aspects of execution – financial underwriting, due diligence, transaction management, marketing and research.
Former CB Richard Ellis retail investment brokers Gary Saykaly and Van Barron founded NewBridge Retail Advisors in 2002to arrange and sell joint ventures for shopping centers. The company executed more than $2 billion worth of investment and joint venture transactions.
Former commercial loan officers Richard Levine and Mark Rowell created CREFunding to assist commercial developers in obtaining and structuring high leverage, non-recourse debt and equity financing. CREFunding has capitalized more than $1.5 billion of projects.
Saykaly, Barron, Rowell and Levine are now managing partners of BridgePointe Advisors, which opened on Oct. 2. The fastest growing area of BridgePointe’s business is expected to be mixed-use projects. While retail assets have been a major focus, the entities forming BridgePointe also have expertise in multi-family, office, industrial, condominiums and land.
“Our experience in both Class-A and Class-B/C assets (transitional and performing), allows our team to help clients with all their projects, not just the trophy assets,” states Barron. “In addition, we have deep access to both transparent and less transparent (emerging, cross-over) investors and capital sources nationaly and globally that are interested in opportunities all along the risk curve.”