Counterpointe Investment Management

Counterpointe focuses on transitional and bridge loans for income-producing commercial properties. The mandate spans senior mortgages, mezzanine loans, and preferred equity positions. Most transactions are collateralized by multifamily, office, industrial, or hospitality assets located in primary and secondary US markets. The firm targets situations where bank or agency financing is unavailable due to asset complexity, timing, or lease-up profile.

Matthew H. Botein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, oversees all investment decisions. Botein previously led BlackRock's multi-asset alternatives division, managing over $100 billion across real estate, private credit, hedge funds, and opportunistic strategies. He chaired BlackRock's global alternatives operating committee before departing to join Counterpointe full-time in 2014. Senior investment team members include former Blackstone and institutional-allocator professionals.

The firm sources directly through long-standing developer relationships, regional commercial mortgage brokers, and sponsor-networks rather than through syndication desks or auction processes. This direct-origination model allows Counterpointe to underwrite complex transactions — construction takeouts, lease-up stories, recapitalizations — that fall outside agency-lending parameters. The firm competes on certainty of close rather than price alone.

Counterpointe manages permanent-capital vehicles and separately managed accounts for institutional limited partners, including US public pension plans and endowments. New York State Common Retirement Fund disclosed a $100 million commitment in October 2020. The firm does not offer registered fund products or retail-accessible vehicles. Its permanent-capital structure avoids redemption-driven selling, aligning loan hold periods with underlying asset business plans.

Counterpointe focuses primarily on credit strategies — senior loans, mezzanine debt, and preferred equity. While preferred equity positions carry equity-like risk characteristics, the firm does not manage core real estate equity funds, open-end diversified property vehicles, or development-exposure strategies. The investment team targets credit-like downside protection with equity-like structuring flexibility on transitional assets.

Botein's decade at BlackRock, where he ran multi-asset alternatives and chaired the operating committee, embedded institutional governance standards into Counterpointe's partnership culture. The firm applies BlackRock-grade risk reporting, credit committee discipline, and LP transparency to a loan-level origination business. Botein's experience allocating across private credit, real estate, and hedge funds informs Counterpointe's cross-cycle underwriting framework.

Counterpointe concentrates on primary and secondary markets across the United States, with selective exposure to Western Europe. The firm targets gateway cities — New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco — as well as high-growth secondary metros like Austin, Nashville, and Denver. European exposure is opportunistic, focused on major markets where the legal and title framework supports enforceable creditor rights.