Great Plans Capital Management

Craig Karmin, the firm's Managing Partner and founder, leads all investment decisions. Karmin built the underwriting framework himself, drawing on a career that included senior structured-finance roles at UBS and JP Morgan. The firm does not publicly list an investment committee or additional voting members beyond Karmin.

Great Plans targets sub-$15 million bridge loans, a check size that institutional direct lenders generally avoid because the economics don't support their overhead. The firm also runs a deliberately short-duration book — typically 12 to 36 months — which means it resets pricing frequently and carries less mark-to-market duration risk than lenders who wrote five-to-seven-year fixed-rate paper before the rate cycle turned.

Great Plans originates loans directly; there is no public evidence it makes LP commitments to external real estate funds. The firm markets itself to sponsors as a direct balance-sheet lender, not an intermediary or fund-of-funds.

The firm concentrates on the Midwest — anchored by its Chicago base — and the Sun Belt. Property types include value-add office, light industrial, retail, and multifamily. The common thread is transitional assets where a sponsor needs capital to execute a business plan that a local bank cannot or will not finance at that moment.

Great Plans operates as an asset manager. It pools external LP capital through a private investment vehicle. There is no publicly disclosed connection to a single-family wealth source or family-office structure.