Capital from principals who have been borrowers, not just lenders. We finance the entire structure — senior debt to equity — and underwrite every deal from the owner's side.
See the box ↓Most capital in commercial real estate has never stood where the sponsor stands. We have. Black Keel finances the full structure for well-sponsored real estate — assets in transition, and stabilized assets facing a financing moment: a maturity, a recapitalization, a partner coming or going — and takes equity alongside the sponsors we back.
Built for the part of the cycle that sorts disciplined capital from the rest — when financing is scarce, values uncertain, and structure matters more than story.
Billions of dollars of real estate sponsored as principals — acquisition and development — with personal guarantees behind it. We know the weight of the borrower's chair because we've sat in it with our names on the line; that, not size, is our edge.
“Calm sailing doesn’t come from calm waters; it comes from having a good navigator, a good crew, and a good vessel.”
In sailing, the keel makes a vessel seaworthy — the spine the ship is built on, the ballast that holds it upright when the wind is hardest against it. The truest test comes on the upwind days, when progress is earned, not given. Markets, like weather, aren't always favorable — and the upwind legs are the ones we built Black Keel for. When other capital heads for harbor, a crew earns its keep.
The word black is deliberate — the color of restraint, and the most demanding hull to keep, rewarding only meticulous, unrelenting care. That is the standard we hold in our underwriting and our stewardship.
Sailing is the purest alignment we know: a crew agrees on the destination before leaving the dock, then pulls toward it together. We hold our partnerships to that standard — as people who have been owners, not only lenders.
Full stack, by design. Most credit shops occupy a single rung; we meet a sponsor wherever the need sits — senior and structured debt, mezzanine, preferred equity, and, where conviction runs deepest, our own equity alongside them. The creativity to structure across the stack is what makes us a better partner: one counterparty, not three with three agendas. And every decision is made by principals who have sponsored billions across acquisition and development — we know headwinds firsthand, and like a good crew, we know how to trim to them and turn them into forward motion.
Senior debt, mezzanine, and preferred equity for assets in transition or at a financing moment — financing the gap where traditional capital has stepped back but the real estate and the people remain sound. We price to value we can defend.
Every position is underwritten to the downside first. We stay close for the life of the deal, because when the sponsor wins, we do.
To the sponsor, we are crew, not cargo — aboard the same boat, pulling toward the same destination.
Where conviction is highest, we invest equity directly — as a preferred-return partner alongside operators we believe in, only where we fundamentally understand the opportunity and can add real value.
That willingness is the point: a firm prepared to stand in the equity underwrites the debt the way an owner would. It is what principals first, lenders second means in practice.
We choose our position openly with the sponsor, at the outset — agreed when the destination is set. Our equity comes from conviction, never a borrower's distress.
Most of our lending begins with an intermediary. We built Black Keel to be the lender you want in your deal — a clear box, a fast and honest answer, and terms that hold at the closing table.
Download the box (PDF) — the same criteria, for your files and your clients.
Send a complete scenario and you’ll have an honest answer — indicative terms or a clear no — within two to three business days. Complete means: sponsor bio and track record, asset summary, rent roll and operating statements, business plan and budget, current debt and its maturity, and sources & uses with the ask.
Your fee is respected and papered. Your relationship is protected — we don’t go around the people who bring us business. Crew, not cargo applies to intermediaries too: the brokers who work with us make money with us again.
Have a scenario? Send it to michael@blackkeel.com. If it fits the box, you’ll hear from a principal — and you’ll get an answer either way.
Sailing teaches the lessons good investing requires: respect the conditions you cannot control, prepare for the weather you hope not to see, and carry enough ballast to hold your line when it turns. Nothing matters more than alignment — a crew that disagrees on the destination is in trouble before it leaves the harbor, so we settle that first.
We underwrite conservatively and would rather miss a deal than misjudge one. We treat investor capital as held in trust, not deployed for its own sake.
The terms are table stakes — anyone can quote a rate. What we bring is harder to find: a partner who has carried the weight you carry, steadiest in the upwind days.
This is unglamorous work, and we prefer it that way. The keel is never the part anyone admires. It is simply the part that gets you home.
“We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.”
More than two decades in private equity and real estate. He began in M&A at Platinum Equity, then completed more than $2.7 billion of real estate acquisition and development as an executive and principal — at Weintraub Real Estate Group in Los Angeles, RAD Ventures in Venice, California, and Accomplice Group. After 2009 he founded a data-enabled non-QM lending platform — backed by QED Investors and Spark Capital — that became one of the largest non-QM lenders in the country. Having built and owned, he underwrites from the borrower's side, not only the lender's. He runs Black Keel from Boise, Idaho.