Cantor Fitzgerald and CIM Group have formed Cantor Commercial Real Estate, which will offer real estate and mezzanine loans that the partnership intends to securitize into commercial mortgage-backed securities, said Anthony Orso, executive managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald and CEO of the new entity.
Cantor Fitzgerald and CIM will be co-general partners of Cantor Commercial Real Estate, the third business Cantor Fitzgerald has rolled out that uses a model in which the financial services firm partners with a third-party capital provider. CIM Group, a real estate investment firm, will provide capital.
Cantor Commercial expects to originate fixed- and floating-rate mortgages and mezzanine loans secured by real estate assets, predominantly in urban communities in major U.S. markets. The partnership expects to produce $5 billion a year in loans, Mr. Orso said in an interview.
“CIM Group has an amazing track record in real estate,” said Mr. Orso, who worked with CIM Group, financing some of its projects when he worked at Credit Suisse before joining Cantor Fitzgerald last September.
Cantor Fitzgerald has two other real estate businesses in which it has taken on a third-party capital provider: a gaming business and a FDIC loan acquisition business. The firm plans to enter into two or three similarly structured businesses, Mr. Orso said.
