Mack Real Estate Group

Richard Mack, the CEO, leads day-to-day investment decisions with oversight from his father, founder and Chairman William Mack, and his brother, President Stephen Mack. Richard Mack previously spent time at Apollo Global Management, where he gained experience in distressed and opportunistic real estate credit, which shapes the firm's lending underwriting. The firm's credit committee includes these three principals, making the process highly centralized within the Mack family.

Mack Real Estate Group was founded by William Mack, who previously founded and built Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, a publicly traded REIT that at its peak owned over 25 million square feet of office and industrial space primarily in the Northeast. Mack-Cali was formed through the 1997 merger of Mack Company and Cali Realty Corporation. The private entity, Mack Real Estate Group, is a separate firm launched after William Mack stepped back from the public REIT, with no corporate ownership tie between the two entities today.

The firm originates senior loans, mezzanine debt, and preferred equity secured by transitional commercial real estate. Transactional properties are those undergoing lease-up, renovation, repositioning, or redevelopment — situations where conventional bank lenders are often constrained by construction exposure limits or regulatory requirements. Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies, the firm's lending platform, focuses on loans typically ranging from $50 million to over $200 million across multifamily, office, hospitality, and industrial assets.

While the firm's primary activity is credit origination, the Mack family's real estate platform has historically included equity investments and development through affiliated entities. The debt arm, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies, is structured as a direct lender. However, the principals' background in development and ownership means they can structure transactions that blend debt with equity optionality when circumstances warrant.

The firm concentrates on major US gateway cities, with a particular emphasis on the New York metropolitan area and South Florida. The Macks have deep historical relationships with local developers, brokers, and municipal stakeholders in these markets dating back to the William Mack Company's operations in the 1960s. Their lending is urban-infill-oriented, with limited exposure to secondary or tertiary markets where property-level liquidity is less predictable.

The firm blends family capital from the Mack family's real estate wealth, accumulated over more than five decades, with institutional third-party capital raised through Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies. The institutional investor base includes US public pension funds and other large allocators seeking current-yield real estate exposure. The permanent family capital component allows the firm to retain loans on balance sheet when markets turn, unlike fund vehicles that face forced asset sales at maturity.

Deal flow comes through the Mack family's multi-decade network of developers, brokers, property owners, and operators, augmented by Richard Mack's contacts from his time at Apollo and Stephen Mack's from NorthStar Realty Finance. In the current market environment, the firm also receives direct inbound requests from borrowers who had previously relied on regional banks for construction and bridge financing — a sourcing channel that opened significantly after the March 2023 bank failures.