H.I.G. Capital announced that Managing Directors Michael Mestel and Steven Schwartz have been promoted to Co-Heads of H.I.G. Realty Credit Partners. H.I.G. Realty Credit Partners has originated over $3 billion of loans in 33 investments since its inception.

Mestel has over two decades of real estate lending experience. He has been at H.I.G. for almost 5 years, and in his most recent role served as Head of Origination for the Realty Credit Partners platform. Prior to that, Mestel was a Principal and Head of West Coast Originations at USAA/Square Mile Capital Management, an investment fund manager focused on the origination of credit secured by real estate assets across the United States. He has also served as a Director in the Real Estate Finance group at Citigroup, and as a Vice President at Rialto Capital Management.

Schwartz has over 30 years of real estate lending and investing experience. He has been at H.I.G. since 2017, and in his most recent role was responsible for Real Estate Special Situations investing at H.I.G.’s Bayside Capital. Prior to joining H.I.G., Schwartz was a partner at Torchlight Investors, a leading commercial real estate debt investor, where he served on its Board of Directors and its Investment and Operating Committees. Steve spent almost 20 years at JP Morgan, where he headed the CMBS and Commercial Real Estate Lending groups. Steve serves on a National Council of the Urban Land Institute, the Investor Council for the Mortgage Bankers Association and on the New York University Stern Real Estate Advisory Board.

“H.I.G. Capital has a long history of investing in real estate in the middle market space, in both equity and debt strategies, and we have been very pleased with the growth of this business, as well as its investment performance. We look forward to Michael and Steve expanding upon the solid platform that the firm has built over the years,” said H.I.G. Capital Founders and Co-CEOs Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer.

“H.I.G. Realty Credit Partners is a strong fit with the existing real estate and credit businesses at the firm,” said Brian Schwartz, Co-President of H.I.G. Capital. “Michael and Steve put us in a great position to grow this vertical, and to make H.I.G.’s real estate credit business a top tier platform within the middle-market real estate lending space.”

“We are excited to continue the significant expansion of the real estate investing platform at H.I.G. with the promotion of Michael and Steve to lead H.I.G. Realty Credit Partners,” said David Hirschberg and Ira Weidhorn, Co-Heads of H.I.G. Realty Partners.

Mestel and Schwartz stated, “We look forward to leading the expansion of H.I.G.’s real estate credit strategy, as we lend to and invest in strong middle-market transactions with leading sponsors throughout the U.S. We will build on the team’s strong track record of success and will be working together to expand the portfolio and the overall platform.”