Standard Planning Company

Standard Planning Company

Standard Planning Company was established in 1989 and has been led by President John Boruk since the mid-1990s. The firm operates as a private mortgage lender, originating and servicing loans collateralized primarily by commercial and mixed-use real estate in the New York metropolitan area. Its track record spans more than three decades of credit cycles without a public restructuring. The firm concentrates on first-mortgage bridge loans and permanent financing for income-producing properties. Typical loan sizes range from $1 million to $10 million — below the floor where most institutional lenders compete and above what local banks underwrite on relationship alone. Asset types financed include multifamily walk-ups, retail condominiums, and industrial flex space across the five boroughs and Long Island. Standard Planning retains the bulk of its originations on its own balance sheet, a posture that keeps underwriting authority in-house and eliminates the agency risk embedded in syndication or securitization models. Standard Planning Company maintains a lean operation — fewer than ten professionals, per public records — and has never expanded beyond its New York origination footprint. The firm has no institutional limited partners, no fund vehicles, and no ancillary asset management business. Its revenue is generated entirely from interest income and origination fees on loans it holds to maturity. Boruk remains the sole decision-maker on credit approvals, a structure unchanged since the firm's founding. What distinguishes Standard Planning is the duration of its borrower relationships in a market where lending institutions routinely exit and re-enter depending on cycle conditions. The firm has provided successive refinancings to the same New York landlord families for over twenty years — a continuity that functions as an informal moat. By never taking outside capital, Boruk avoids the pressure to deploy during frothy markets that forces competing private lenders to loosen terms.