In summer’ 24, The Promote published one of our most popular and enduring features: The Quiet Kings of Capital trilogy, a look at the alt lenders shaking up the CRE landscape w/ big checks and high-octane deals. Even as many of those names continue to dominate, there is another crop of construction lenders that keeps popping up in capstacks nationwide – w/ banks continuing to feel jittery, feels like the financing space is now a game of debt fund Whac-A-Mole. Today, let’s dive into some of those players – what follows is an unscientific rundown. 👇

A 🖋️ from Pensford’s JP Conklin: CPI comes out this week and even grandma in central PA knows it will come in hot. It’s expected to come in at 3.7%, a level last seen in mid-2023 as the rate hikes were cooling things down. Even tariffs only got it up to 3.5%.

Inflation expectations matter more to the Fed than current inflation. If public perception reflects a more permanent shift to 3% instead of 2%, they are more likely to hike. We briefly touched these levels last year after Liberation Day, but then receded. If that happens this year, no hikes. But if expectations keep climbing like they did in 2021, the Fed will have to do something. “Donnie, listen, I know I promised I would lower rates but…” Kevin Warsh. Read on…

G4 Capital (Louis Silverman, Robyn Sorid, Jason Behfarin). From trucks to bucks. This is a firm we took a look at in the fall, and they’ve continued to be busy on the New York ground-up scene, becoming a go-to source for the likes of Simon “Bitachon” Dushinsky and Jacob Kohn. Last month, G4 announced an expansion to California. They’ve raised at least a half-dozen funds, are now chasing retail money (like everyone) and there’s been chatter about them potentially tinkering with secondaries.

S3 Capital (Robert Schwartz, Joshua Crane principals, Steven Jemal deal face): S3 just announced the close of their 3rd debt fund at $850M. These guys have been roaring from a deal volume perspective, but also showing an appetite for writing bigger checks – you see them pop up a ton in the $50M-$100M range, but there’ve been some whoppers too – they’re the $300M money on the Astoria Cove resurrection by KS (Yehuda Kotkes, Daniel Spiegel) and on one of our favorite transactions (still need to unpack properly TBH), the Sunset Park megaproject being developed by 🐺 Landau, David Tabak & Sam Rubin. They also just gave $344M to Bruce Eichner for a Miami waterfront project - betting on Eichner is a choice!

Though Schwartz & Crane of Spruce Capital Partners are now the public faces of the firm, S3 was born as a JV between them & Manny Stern, principal at Tall Pines Capital and son to pet supply-mogul Leonard Stern (yes, the NYU biz school Leonard Stern) - we’re unsure if Manny’s still in the mix.

Promote Insiders: Read on for the full list at the end of this newsletter 🔒 👇

“In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.” The Godfather

We all have our misadventures w/ LinkedIn, but the co-founder of one of CRE finance’s most storied shops takes the cake: Fortress’ Wes Edens was allegedly shaken down for more than $1B by a former sexual partner, per a federal indictment, with the woman threatening Edens she would publicly ruin him if he didn’t pay up. The case is set to go to trial later this year, per WSJ, which revealed Sunday that Edens was the person ID’d only as “Victim-1” in the indictment. A lawyer for Edens first informed the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office of the situation in early ‘25, which kicked off an investigation. Edens is expected to testify.

The particulars are sordid: In ‘22, Changli “Sophia” Luo, slid into the LinkedIn DMs of Edens, a billionaire through his *Fortress bets and owner of Premier League ⚽ club Aston Villa. That initial message led to a fling, but things eventually turned dark: Luo allegedly threatened to ruin Edens’ reputation by going to the media and his investors, and even contacted his family. Though they came to a $6.5M settlement to put the matter to bed, Luo later said she had contracted an STI, blaming Edens and demanding up to $1.2B, almost half of Edens’ reported net worth. Will point you to the indictment for the rest – just a wild example of how being a master of the universe can put a target on your back.

*Fortress went public in ‘07, was acquired by SoftBank in a $3.3B take-private in ‘17, and was sold to Mubadala & Fortress execs in a ≈ $3B deal in ‘24.

You toil inside a REIT year after year hawking billboards and retail space, and year after year you see outside brokers taking home far more coin than you. So you decide to take advantage of your insider position to perpetrate a commissions scheme to defraud your employer. For 14 years. Our snapshot of Jared Solomon, the dealmaker who was just convicted on all counts of stealing nearly $10M from Vornado Realty Trust, is now live on YouTube. We synthesized all the reporting and court records to bring you the key highlights: fugazi brokerages, burner phones, and much more. We’ll be doing more of these videos on projects & players x the country, so smash that subscribe button and ✏ w/ suggestions.

More from The Promote on YouTube 🎞
Real Estate Ponzinomics: The Josh Schuster Story
Inside A Manhattan Real Estate Debacle
The Man Who Broke CRE Finance