Metropolitan Partners Group

Paul Lisiak, the firm's Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, holds final credit authority. Lisiak co-founded the firm in 2014 with Mark Cohen and brought institutional credit experience from prior senior roles. The firm's investment committee is described as senior-led, with Lisiak personally involved in structuring and approving transactions.

The firm relies on a direct-origination model rather than broker-led or auction processes. It sources loans through relationships with commercial mortgage brokers, specialty-finance platforms seeking warehouse lines, and direct outreach to owner-operators. This origination approach is designed to surface transactions before they reach a broad competitive market.

Metropolitan Partners Group operates as an institutional asset manager, not a family office. It manages an evergreen capital base sourced from institutional and family-office limited partners. Its structure is designed for permanent-hold lending rather than the closed-end fund model typical of private credit peers.

The firm targets senior secured loans across three verticals: commercial real estate bridge lending, receivables financing for specialty-finance platforms, and corporate debt. Real estate lending centers on transitional multifamily, industrial, and retail properties, while corporate lending provides warehouse lines and term facilities to non-bank consumer and small-business lenders.

Metropolitan operates as a direct lender, not a co-investment vehicle. Its capital is deployed as principal in self-originated senior secured loans. The firm does not market a co-investment program alongside external fund managers, and its transactions are typically sole-lender or small-club structures rather than syndicated participations.

The firm concentrates on sub-$50 million transactions, with an emphasis on deals under $30 million in real estate and smaller corporate lines. This places Metropolitan below the target range of large institutional direct lenders and squarely in the segment vacated by regional banks, where competition for well-structured senior secured paper is thinner.

Metropolitan Partners Group uses an evergreen capital structure rather than the closed-end drawdown funds common among direct-lending peers. This permanent-capital base allows the firm to hold loans to maturity without facing a fund-life deadline, which the firm argues aligns better with borrowers who value certainty of execution and lenders who want to avoid forced sales into dislocated markets.