What Real Estate and Finance Professionals Who Know Midloch Say About Midloch

The old saying about “the company you keep” is as true today as ever.

Nobody knows Midloch better than the people we do business with every day, some of whom we’ve known and worked with for 10 to 15 years or more. They know how we do business, and reflect the quality and caliber of the people and companies we do business with.

Colin Ryan is Senior Managing Director of JLL Capital Markets in Minneapolis. He places equity investments in commercial and multifamily real estate, and sells investment properties, all over the country. He’s known our CEO, Andy Sinclair, for over a decade, actually closer to 15 years.

“Andy understands the fundamentals of a deal first and foremost,” Colin said. “It’s instinctual for him. He takes complex real estate transactions and turns them into a series of straightforward decisions.”

About their character...

Colin has represented Midloch in several transactions, including the sale of an industrial building in Bloomington, Minnesota. “We brought a buyer in. Midloch reacted quickly, and awarded them the sale. Then another party offered a slightly higher price. But Midloch stuck with the original buyer because they had a handshake deal, the surety of close, and the potential to be a repeat partner. That says a lot about their character.”

Colin also credits Midloch with being outside-the-box thinkers open to investing in nontraditional assets such as parking lots. (Midloch owns a parking structure next to Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee.)

Seeing through the fog

Commenting on Midloch’s business model, Colin observed that as the real estate market changed and interest rates rose faster in the last few years, Midloch pivoted quickly from being an LP (limited partner) and joint-venture equity investor to providing preferred equity as well. “Midloch could see through the fog and adapted to make the most of the opportunity,” Colin said. “They could do it because they understand the core value of real estate assets and can think like the operators they are partnering with to get good results for everyone. Plus, they are just super nimble.”

Midloch benefits from a leadership team with a unique set of skills and perspectives that most private equity firms do not have. “The principals have varied backgrounds,” Colin said. “Andy in raising money, deploying it and returning a premium to investors; Rafi Golberstein as a national lender; and Josh Krsnak as a developer-owner-operator.”

Colin notes that Midloch does a careful job of picking partners. In other words, they don’t partner with local operators until they make sure the chemistry matches and the personalities line up.

Calm and clear-headed

Christopher Carroll, Senior Vice President at Bellwether Enterprise in Chicago, has a similar view of Midloch. “I’ve known Andy since he was at MLG in the late 2000s, and Josh for five years,” Chris said. “There’s always been a hole in the middle market for JV and pref equity, and it’s magnified now with traditional banks less active and mortgages financed in the last couple years coming due. The macro market can be white-knuckle right now. It can be difficult to underwrite terminal value, but the Midloch team is calm and clear-headed. They can spot investment opportunities that others don’t see.”

John Koeijmans, Senior Managing Director of Berkadia in Dallas, has been in the real estate business for 35 years. He focuses exclusively on existing multifamily properties, primarily sourcing debt for project sponsors but also some preferred equity and joint-venture equity.

John, too, sees the market need for Midloch as a JV and preferred equity investor. “Absolutely, it’s a great niche in high demand,” John said.

The right place at the right time

“The middle market in which Midloch operates is facing challenges now that also present Midloch with some great opportunities to deploy capital when it’s needed most. They’re at the right place at the right time,” he said.

Echoing Colin, John said “Midloch is attuned to understand the story of individual properties. This or that property may be distressed at the moment, but they can tell if the asset is fundamentally valuable and has the potential to be a winner. That’s one of the traits that makes Midloch special.”