Updates from Hunt Mortgage Group, Cushman & Wakefield and MetLife

Hunt Mortgage Group Opens Houston Office
Hunt Mortgage Group, New York, opened an office in Houston and hired Tony Talamas as Vice President.

Talamas will focus on originating agency debt, primarily small balance loans under the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Small Balance Loan Programs, for clients in the south central United States. Hunt Mortgage Group also offers bridge financing through its proprietary loan group. 

Talamas comes to Hunt Mortgage Group from BMC Capital where he was a Vice President and Loan Officer.  While at BMC, he originated and closed multifamily and commercial real estate loans between $1 million and $10 million, primarily acquisition and refinance transactions secured by stabilized multifamily and multi-tenant retail properties.

Talamas founded his own firm, Fountainhead Intermediary LLC, to secure debt for multifamily and commercial real estate. He has also held positions with Deerpath Capital, ECOtality, Wells Fargo & Washington Mutual and Merrill Lynch.

Kaplan, Lentz and Rutherford join Cushman & Wakefield in Miami
Cushman & Wakefield hired a team of real estate debt and equity specialists led by Executive Managing Director Robert Kaplan from Ackman-Ziff.

Kaplan began his career in real estate law before transitioning to in-house investment sales and financing for two prominent private south Florida investors. He entered the national brokerage industry in 1998, joining HFF to lead the financing group in its Miami office. Most recently he served as the head of the Florida office of New York-based Ackman-Ziff.

Joining Kaplan are Senior Director Chris Lentz and Analyst Mark Rutherford, with over 30 years of combined experience in corporate and commercial real estate financing and sales. Lentz joined Ackman-Ziff in 2013 after time at Evercore Partners, Lazard and Lehman Brothers. At Cushman & Wakefield, he will focus on originating and executing debt and equity financing transactions.

Rutherford has teamed with Kaplan for over 13 years arranging debt and equity capital as well as orchestrating investment sales in commercial real estate. He began his career as a CPA at Price Waterhouse, later rotating through positions in private equity and corporate finance.

Kaplan’s group further expands Cushman & Wakefield’s base of expertise in sales and financing, bringing complementary experience in residential, retail, hotel, office, mixed-use and industrial properties.

Rothenberg Joins MetLife Investment Management as Managing Director
MetLife, New York, hired David Rothenberg as managing director and global head of the Institutional Client Group of MetLife Investment Management. He will focus primarily on institutional sales.

Rothenberg joined MetLife from Russell Investments, where he most recently served as managing director of Americas Institutional Sales and Service. He also previously served as managing director of Russell Implementation Services. Prior to that, he held various roles in institutional sales at Nomura Securities International, Barclays Global Investors and Investment Technology Group.

MetLife Investment Management is MetLife’s institutional investment management business, responsible for investing in corporate and infrastructure private placement debt, real estate equity, commercial mortgage loans, customized index strategies, structured finance, emerging market debt and high yield debt.