

Industry veterans Gary Wool, Martin Siegel and Matt Lebenson have launched Wool Finance Partners, a commercial mortgage company that will place small- to mid-sized loans by building on their previous relationships as mortgage bankers.
The firm will place loans between $5m-$50m and will look to hire up to five employees in the next six months.


“We think it is an exciting time to create a new business to help owners of real estate with their financing needs,” Wool, a partner at the Chicago-based firm, told Real Estate Capital.
“We were introduced by others in the industry who knew us and thought that our combined skill sets could help us create a successful company.”
The firm will seek to arrange long-term acquisition loans and construction loans up to a maximum 75% loan-to-value for three, five, seven and 10 years spanning retail, office, industrial and multi-family assets across the US.
Prior to starting the new venture, Wool was a principal at Janko & Wool Real Estate Finance for 16 years. He has helped place about $1bn in debt and equity during the last 30 years as a mortgage banker.
Lebenson managed a $50m portfolio of construction and commercial real estate loans for InBank before he founded L&N Real Estate Consultants, a commercial mortgage advisory firm in 2008.
Siegel has 20 years of experience in analyzing and valuing commercial real estate and has worked on over 2500 commercial real estate appraisals and consulting reports with an estimated value in excess of $5bn.