“BOOM!!! Largest construction loan in US History!!!” is how Henry Stimler put it. The Newmark dandy had good reason to celebrate: His firm had just closed a mammoth $4.3B construction financing package for One Beverly Hills, in what looks to be the largest debt deal of its kind outside of the data-center space.

Now, on a marquee financing like this, you’d typically expect the Batman & Batman duo of Jordy Roeschlaub & Jonathan Firestone to be in the mix. But instead, leading the charge here was a canny veteran of the capital markets who is less in the zeitgeist, but has a long history of monster transactions: Anthony Orso

Orso, along w/ one of his deputies Cliff Welden, shepherded JPMorgan’s commitment for the $2.8B sr., as well as the more wildcard involvement of Ed Pitoniak’s gaming REIT Vici, which kicked in $1.5B in mezz. It is Orso’s team that will split the multimillion-dollar commission on the assignment, and Orso’s team that will get the bragging rights in a firm that really cares about this stuff.

How did he get here? 👇

This week on the pod, we dive into the life & times of two quintessential Men With Deep Pockets ™: Billionaire Brit Brothers David & Simon Reuben are some of the most aggressive buyers nationwide of trophy hotel & retail assets – many of them in various states of undress & distress. We then look at Apollo’s new NNN partnership with Realty Income - an alliance that says much about how both AUM Gobblers ™ and vanilla REITs have what the other needs. And finally, failed mega-retailer JCPenney is the scene of a bruising battle with a jilted would-be buyer. Plus, our "Punch List" rundown of the newsiest industry happenings: retail titan David Simon; Fannie & Freddie stocks freefall; Iran conflict raises questions about the Middle East's biggest CRE allocators.

💗 to our sponsors:
1) Bravo Capital, a leading HUD and bridge lender. See how their precision underwriting means quicker approvals and higher proceeds for sponsors.
2) LoanBoss, the industry-leading debt management software: 1-click covenant testing, instant cash flow forecasting, and live forward curves!

Listen on Spotify here, YouTube here or Apple Podcasts here. Brands: To get in front of our obsessed audience of CRE insiders, reach out here.

Orso heads up Capital Markets Strategies, Newmark’s securities division, and also oversees the broker-dealer arm which focuses on I-banking/institutional advisory. His team touts a track record of $20B+ in deals since joining the firm in ‘18, but his ties to Howie Lutnick go way back. Along w/ Michael Lehrman, Orso ran CRE originations at Credit Suisse, back when the bank was a real player. When CS got rocked in the GFC, the two began talking w/ Lutnick about building an in-house CMBS platform for his Cantor Fitzgerald. CIM agreed to fund the venture, which the duo stacked w/ CS alum. It grew rapidly, and in '15 Orso & Lehrman took the top spot on CO's Power Finance List. Orso’s initial mandate at Newmark was to integrate the recently acquired agency lender Berkeley Point Capital & multi brokerage ARA. He then transitioned into the stuff he's known for nowadays: fat, messy financing assignments and workouts.

One capital-markets pro familiar w/ his practice said that Orso "leans heavily on his background as principal lender when he's chasing these assignments," i.e the pitch to sponsors is that he knows the lender's psyche because he's been one. (This is not dissimilar to the playbook used by Robert "Large Loan" Verrone, a Wachovia alum who's now principal at Iron Hound)

Something worth flagging from the Newmark announcement: It contains this testimonial from Cain International's Jonathan Goldstein, who's now very much running the show on the One BH megadevelopment (Vlad Doronin's Oko Group is a partner; OG sponsor Beny Alagem is firmly in the background.)

“Newmark brought together a highly coordinated, multidisciplinary team across international capital markets, retail, valuation and underwriting,” Goldstein says. “On a project of this scale, that level of integration is critical, not just to execution but to attracting best-in-class institutional capital. Their ability to align those capabilities and deliver with precision was an important part of getting this financing over the line.”

It is highly unusual for a sponsor to give that kind of specific love to a brokerage in a deal announcement. But then again, this is no ordinary deal.

We’re used to opportunistic investors swooping into distressed situations to snag good office buildings for a song. Now, tenants are getting in on the bargain-buying game 🦅

Capital Group, a $3T+ manager, is buying DTLA’s Bank of America Tower for about $210M, per CO, or just $150/ 🦶. The building has been the firm’s HQ since ‘78, and it renewed its vows in ‘15. Now, it plans to consolidate at the 1.4M sf tower, w/ plans to eventually bring together 2K+ vests 🦺 at the “vertical campus.”

“We knew the best landlord we could possibly have would be ourselves,” 🪞 CEO Mike Gitlin told Bloomberg. “It was just this unique opportunity where the price was much lower than it had been historically.” In owning its space, Capital Group is following in the 👣 of other financial giants such as JPMorgan, which has stitched together an empire in Midtown Manhattan, and Amex, which is going to be owner-occupier of the soon-to-rise 2WTC. (Insiders: Some juicy structural deets on that one here 🔒).

The seller here, of course, is Brookfield, which has hemorrhaged office buildings in the DTLA corridor & elsewhere over the last couple years (though if you’re fluent in Flattish, it’s “not relevant to the overall business.”) Brookfield has also ceded ownership of the Wells Fargo Center N to 601W Cos. (Insiders: See Skydell running riot x the skyline 🔒 ); 601 S Fig. to Uncommon Developers (Ryan Hekmat & Jason Larian, son-in-law & son of dolls mogul Isaac Larian 🎎 ); and Gas Company Tower to LA County. Brookfield acquired much of the portfolio through the ‘13 buy of REIT MPG.