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Meridian Capital Group Scheduled To Reenter Freddie Mac Loan Market

Meridian Capital Group, a group commercial real estate finance, investment sales and retail leasing advisers with offices in Maryland, Monday announced Freddie Mac lenders may resume requesting quotes for Meridian-brokered loans beginning Jan. 1, 2025.

Meridian has taken several important steps to enhance the firm's compliance framework in its brokerage and underwriting activities and procedures, including developing an entirely new credit review process with a chief underwriting officer function and an executive review committee for large loans, complex transactions, and loans originated for sale to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Meridian has arranged more than $550 billion in commercial real estate financing for more than 11,000 customers since its founding. The company has repeatedly been the number one commercial mortgage broker by transaction count and a top five broker by dollar volume.

Founded in 1991, Meridian closed more than $27.4 billion in financing in 43 states across 269 lenders in 2023. Meridian represents real estate investors and developers and the company's platform has specialized practices for a broad array of property types including office, retail, multifamily, hotel, mixed-use, industrial and health care and senior housing properties.

Meridian is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Florida and California.

Meridian Capital Group

A commercial real estate finance, investment sales and retail leasing brokerage that Ralph Hertzka and Aaron Birnbaum co-founded in 1991.

The firm's reach spans the country, with offices in New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Ohio and Florida.

Meridian is one of the country's most active capital markets teams too. In 2019, Meridian closed more than 3,000 transactions with hundreds of lenders for $43 billion in transaction volume companywide.

Meridian told Commercial Observer its deal book breaks down into $25 billion in balance sheet deals, $9 billion in agency and $4 billion in CMBS, with the balance to REITs, specialty lenders, and others. Among its marquee deals in 2019, Meridian arranged the financing for Spitzer Enterprises' 1.5 million-square-foot 420 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and also negotiated the $390 million refinancing provided by Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies to Slate Property Group and BentallGreenOak for Oriana at River Tower, the 38-story, 412-unit luxury property at 420 East 54th Street.

Morris Betesh Exits Meridian With 12 Team Members, Launches New Advisory Firm

Morris Betesh, previously a senior managing director at Meridian Capital Group, has exited the firm along with 12 team members to form a new capital markets advisory platform named Arrow Real Estate Advisors, Commercial Observer can first report. 

The group's collective last day at Meridian was Oct. 20, and Arrow Real Estate Advisors launched today. 

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 "We're a 13-person team, we're fully intact, and we're super excited about our potential growth and the market impact we can make," Betesh told CO. "We're going to continue doing what we do best, which is capital markets advisory, and specialize in sourcing debt and equity for our clients around the country."

He said the new firm will provide a variety of debt and equity solutions tailored to clients' individual needs, including financing for every life stage of a property and joint venture equity and debt restructuring services across asset classes. 

Arrow Real Estate Advisors is launching at an opportune time when both market confidence and transaction volume are returning.

"The market has a lot of tailwinds behind it, and I think 2025 is going to be a very active year — which we would like to capitalize on," Betesh said. "There's a lot of consolidation in the industry, and there's room for a boutique debt-focused advisory shop that is not conflicted and instead exclusively aligned with clients." 

Betesh has more than two decades of industry experience in his pocket, having closed $20 billion of deals across more than 1,000 properties over the years. Prior to joining Meridian in 2017, he held senior roles at Cushman & Wakefield and Massey Knakal Real Estate, which Cushman & Wakefield acquired in 2015. 

Arrow Real Estate Advisors. PHOTO: Arrow Real Estate Advisors.

The 12 team members who left Meridian with Betesh to form Arrow Real Estate are: Justin Boruchov, Alex Bailkin, Morris Dabbah, Jack McPhail, Omar Ferreira, Brandon Serota, Alex Ellman, Matt O'Hanlon, Louis Halperin, Jacob Petrovic, Shlomo Khoudari and Melissa Boodoosingh. 

As the market continues to stabilize in a — hopefully continued— lower interest rate environment, the team will be busy helping clients navigate the new lending playing field.

"There are a lot of new capital sources in the market," Betesh said. "There's no secret that the banks have recoiled from the market, but nonbank lenders have become more and more prevalent — and it's not just the debt funds. The life insurance companies have been super active, as well as CMBS [commercial mortgage-backed securities] and the agencies. So, it's always been a diverse market but it seems like it's getting more and more diverse and more fragmented, which is why we see an opportunity for an independent adviser that has access to all of the capital sources without bias, and is exclusively aligned with clients."

Roughly 40 percent of the New York City-based team's business is typically outside of the New York metro area, and the team will continue to travel around the country to serve its clients and ensure continuity of service as it transitions to the new company. Arrow Real Estate's pipeline includes deals in Arizona, Florida, California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania as well as its home turf of New York, Betesh said. 

Generally speaking, Betesh's team closes roughly $5 billion in transactions in a given year. Despite market disruption, this year has been one of its most active years to date, he said, and they're ready for plenty more action in 2025 — only via a fresh start under a different name. 

"When you're working with people that you trust, that have shared values and that are best in class, you're going to have fun, you're going to enjoy working with them, and you're all going to be successful," Betesh said. "I'm super proud of the team that I built at Meridian, and I'm really excited about using that team as a foundation to build a business around."

The exit of Team Betesh is the most recent departure in what has been a year of high-profile executives leaving the firm, including the firm's former president, Yoni Goodman, and top brokers including Seth Grossman, Ronnie Levine, Adam Hakim, James Murad and Tal Savariego. Former Meridian CEO Ralph Herzka stepped down in March and was replaced by Brian Brooks, a former acting controller of the currency and general counsel at Fannie Mae.

The mass exodus kicked off when Freddie Mac placed a ban on the brokerage from doing deals through lenders that are Freddie Mac seller-servicers. The ban is lifting in January, per an internal memo The Promote posted on X. Freddie Mac later confirmed the details of the memo to CO, while sources said there will be conditions that lenders must adhere to if they plan to bring a Meridian-brokered loan to Freddie Mac in the future. 

Meridian didn't immediately return a request for comment. 

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.Com 

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