Arborstone Financial

President and Managing Partner Steven Chaben leads the firm's overall investment strategy and credit committee. He founded Arborstone in 1994 and oversees both the wealth management and direct lending divisions. Managing Directors Daniel Raubinger and Brian Baker support deal origination and client relationships, with Chaben retaining final authority on loan approvals and portfolio construction.

Arborstone originates loans directly through a regional network of developers, commercial brokers, and property owners in the Midwest. The firm has operated in the Detroit metro and surrounding markets since 1994, generating deal flow from repeat borrowers and referral relationships rather than competitive auctions or intermediary platforms. This direct origination model allows Arborstone to structure loans with terms that institutional lenders often cannot match on speed and flexibility.

Arborstone is structured as a registered investment advisor (RIA) with a multi-family office wealth management division and a private real estate lending arm under the Arborstone Capital umbrella. It does not run a blind-pool private credit fund. Instead, it syndicates individual loan participations to its wealth management clients on a deal-by-deal basis, retaining a minority co-investment in each loan it places.

The firm focuses on short-term, first-position bridge loans secured by commercial and investment residential properties. Common use cases include fix-and-flip financing for single-family homes, acquisition and renovation of small multi-family buildings, and construction completion loans. Loan durations are generally 12 to 24 months, with lending concentrated in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

Arborstone operates an affiliated property management and servicing arm that can take operational control of troubled assets within its loan portfolio. This vertical integration — underwriting, originating, servicing, and asset managing in-house — gives the firm a direct path to resolution when borrowers default, rather than relying on third-party special servicers. This operating model is a key structural feature separating Arborstone from conventional private credit funds.

The firm does not publicly disclose the specific wealth origins of its underlying families. However, its Detroit headquarters and nearly 30-year history suggest deep ties to the Midwest's manufacturing, automotive, real estate development, and professional services communities. The firm's wealth management division serves multi-generational families, often business owners and real estate operators who also intersect with its lending platform.

Arborstone's known posture is to co-invest its own principal capital alongside its wealth management clients in every loan it syndicates. The firm does not appear to raise capital from external institutional limited partners in a traditional fund structure, instead maintaining a closed-loop ecosystem where its own balance sheet and its client base are the sole capital sources for its lending activities.