Basis Investment Group and Lion Creek Real Estate Capital have formed a partnership called BIG Lion. Under the terms of the deal, Lion Creek will originate commercial real estate debt and equity investments for Basis, which will then perform due diligence, underwrite, close and manage the assets.
The companies are no strangers to each other. The three principals of Lion Creek—Abe Katz, David Rosenberg and Mark Silbersher—have had a relationship with Basis that dates back to 2009, having closed more than $1 billion in transaction volume together since then.
Basis, founded by Tammy Jones, invests in both debt and equity strategies, including fixed-rate senior mortgage loans, bridge loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity, structured equity, joint venture equity and B-piece investments. Basis is also an Optigo lender for Freddie Mac and DUS lender for Fannie Mae.
In 2023, Basis formed an origination partnership with impact investment platform Lafayette Square, a national investment platform aimed at creating investment opportunities in overlooked places and underserved markets.
Headquartered in New York City, Basis is one of the only diversified commercial real estate investment platforms in the country to be founded and majority-owned by an African American woman.
CRE debt, equity volume recovering
Both debt and equity investments picked up last year, and commercial real estate investors are now more optimistic than before, though that is still tempered somewhat by uncertainty and risks. More than half (54 percent) of investors surveyed by CBRE at the end of 2024 expect overall commercial real estate investment activity to recover during the first half of this year.
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Seventy percent of surveyed investors plan to buy more commercial real estate assets than they did last year, while just fewer than 50 percent plan to sell more, CBRE found. Value-add and core-plus were the preferred strategies for roughly two-thirds of investors. On the other hand, opportunistic, core, distressed and debt strategies saw notable declines from the previous year.
Mortgage originations for all major property types increased in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported, with borrowing numbers improving as the cost of capital declined.
There was a 124 percent year-over-year increase in the dollar volume of loans for hotel properties in the fourth quarter, a 105 percent increase for office properties, a 94 percent increase for industrial properties, a 72 percent increase for health-care properties, a 69 percent increase for multifamily properties, and retail property loan originations increased 48 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, the organization reported.
