Dekel Capital has launched a new credit platform offering multifamily owners and investors mezzanine and preferred equity capital between $2 million and $10 million for the acquisition and refinancing of assets throughout the United States. 

The new capital strategy adds to the Los Angeles-based real estate merchant bank’s suite of services that provide real estate investors and owners with financial solutions across the entire capital stack including permanent loans and joint venture equity.   

“The dislocation in the capital markets has placed a severe burden on today’s real estate owners, especially those who are exiting construction loans or facing maturing senior debt and are not in a position to sell,” said Dekel Founder and Managing Principal Shlomi Ronen.   “With lower LTVs, increasing operating costs, and pressures of covenant compliance, lenders are requiring owners to come up with more equity or risk losing financing or worse their asset.   Preferred equity fills the gap in the capital stack and allows sponsors to use what equity they have more wisely.” 

With an increasing number of preferred equity investors entering the market, Dekel will cater to what they believe is an underserved segment of the real estate borrowing community 

“What we are seeing in today’s lending environment is the majority of borrowers still needing to fill on average a $2 million to $10 million gap,” added Dekel Vice President Benjamin Grosberg.   “The majority of this type of capital is offered by institutional players, and they simply can’t carve those smaller allocations out of a billion-dollar fund.”   

Dekel plans to deploy $100 million in preferred equity over the next 12 months.  While focusing on multifamily, Dekel will also consider other commercial assets on a selected basis. 

Earlier this year, Dekel launched a correspondent lending program, under the direction of Managing Director Vishal Vanjani, to originate fixed-rate Life Insurance and CMBS loans on behalf of several capital providers including a global asset manager and large Canadian bank.   

“Through our various strategies we are able to structure the entire capital stack and provide borrowers with financing that can be significantly less than what they were paying on their existing floating rate loans, especially given where indices are right now,” added Ronen. 

The Valorem platform and JLL’s Automated Valuation Model instantly leverages data and provides real-time risk management assessments 

Swift Bunny, founded by apartment industry innovator Joe Bailey, today announced the launch of Ingage™ employee feedback system, a cutting-edge solution to the age-old problem of excessive employee turnover. The company has acquired ManagInc, a corporate social responsibility planning and consulting platform. ManagInc founder and CEO Doug Miller joins Swift Bunny as Chief Research Officer, and Chief Operating Officer Jen Piccotti joins as Chief Learning Officer.

Swift Bunny’s Ingage™ is a year-round feedback system focused on the key moments in the employee lifecycle and reveals the candid perceptions of the company’s most important stakeholders: the employees. Feedback becomes insights, and insights become actionable tools that empower multifamily leadership to boost employee satisfaction, performance, and retention, leading to improved organizational efficiency and profitability.

“The apartment industry has an average annual employee turnover rate that’s twice that of other businesses. That’s unacceptable,” said Bailey. “For too long, we’ve considered sky-high turnover normal when it’s anything but. Our platform helps companies reduce excessive employee churn, and the costs associated with it, by identifying drivers of dissatisfaction and directing focus to the issues that matter most to associates.”

The apartment industry supports 12.3 million jobs in the United States. Recruiting, hiring and retaining employees are among multifamily operators’ greatest challenges, and likely result in understaffing some apartment communities. Additionally, only 30% of U.S. workers are engaged in their work while the vast majority of employees (70%) are not reaching their full potential. Swift Bunny is perfectly positioned to assist multifamily owners and managers to improve their employee satisfaction, reduce their employee turnover, and strengthen their bottom line.

“Our philosophy is simple: focus on your people and all stakeholders benefit,” says Miller. “Enhancing employee engagement and retention is good for business in so many ways, including improving productivity and profitability. Workplaces just work better when employees are enthusiastic, contributing, and committed. We help multifamily firms figure out what’s getting in the way of that so they correct it.”

Swift Bunny’s management team brings a wealth of expertise in multifamily talent management, employee engagement, retention, feedback systems, and technology. Bailey is the founder and former CEO/President of Grace Hill, a multifamily eLearning provider. In addition to founding ManagInc, Miller was also the founder of SatisFacts Research, a resident feedback and retention service provider. Joining Bailey, Miller, and Piccotti are Jefferson Morris, Chief Operating Officer, Tammy Chivers Baker, Chief Product Officer, Kevin McGrey, Chief Technology Officer, and Kara Rice, Chief Communications Officer.

Swift Bunny will debut their Ingage™ employee feedback system at the National Apartment Association’s Apartmentalize Education Conference, June 26 – 28, 2019 in Denver, Colorado.

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RealtyMogul.com, a leading online marketplace for commercial real estate investing, today announced the launch of its first commercial real estate fund, MogulREIT I. Structured as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) with a minimum investment of $2,500, the fund is open to nearly all* investors and offers the potential for consistent cash dividends and equity appreciation.