BrightSpire Capital

CEO Mike Mazzei leads the firm's investment strategy and chairs the investment committee. He previously led the commercial real estate debt business at Colony Capital and brought much of his former team to BrightSpire at its formation in 2017. The investment committee reviews all originations, with a stated focus on floating-rate senior mortgages and structured preferred equity in top-tier US and European markets.

The firm originates the majority of its loans directly through relationships with institutional borrowers, developers, and private equity sponsors active in gateway markets. BrightSpire maintains origination teams in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and supplements direct sourcing through relationships with commercial mortgage brokers and regional bank partners. The firm has also partnered with a local real estate lender to expand its European origination capabilities.

BrightSpire is a publicly traded commercial mortgage REIT, not a family office. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BRSP in February 2018. As of May 2024, the firm completed its transition to a self-managed structure, bringing its management team directly onto the REIT's payroll rather than contracting through an external management entity.

BrightSpire originates across the full commercial real estate capital stack — senior mortgages, mezzanine loans, and preferred equity — which allows the firm to meet borrowers at different risk-return points within a single lending relationship. Unlike mortgage REITs that concentrate almost entirely on senior loans, BrightSpire's mezzanine and preferred equity book provides higher-yielding exposure to the same institutional-quality assets backing their first mortgages.

BrightSpire launched its European platform in 2021 with a London office and has since originated or acquired subordinate debt positions on properties in the UK and select continental markets. The European book includes mezzanine loans and preferred equity, rather than plain-vanilla senior mortgages, reflecting the firm's view that subordinate positions offer better risk-adjusted returns in non-US markets where senior lending is dominated by local banks (per the firm, 2023).