Brad Domenico Nominated Commercial Observer 25 Under 35
A self-proclaimed “deal junkie,” Progress Capital’s Brad Domenico has recently hit a milestone, overseeing or closing on roughly $750 million in loans over the last 12 months and adding to his $3 billion in volume since joining the firm seven years ago.
The 34-year-old partner at the firm and his team have compiled a diverse portfolio of debt placements over the last year, from construction loans and refinancing to acquisition loans and condominium inventory loans.
One such deal arranged by Domenico and his mother—Progress Capital’s founding partner Kathy Anderson—was a 24-month, interest only and floating-rate construction loan from Natixis, totaling $86.3 million and arranged for Joy Construction and Maddd Equities. The loan facilitated the development of a 110,727-square-foot, Class-A office building at 330 East 62nd Street; the property was leased out in full for an initial term of 30 years to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to be used as its administrative offices.
“We were able to get a creative structure through Natixis. That was a really cool deal we worked on; I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Jorge Madruga and Eli Weiss,” Domenico said.
As a young upstart, Domenico, who earned a bachelor’s in business and finance from Rider University in 2006, joined the now-defunct Lehman Brothers after college. Once the Financial Crisis hit, he moved to the wealth management arm of Neuberger Berman, where he stayed until he joined his family’s business.
“I came in a bit green in terms of real estate finance, but you have to crawl before you can walk,” he said. “[My mother told me] if you want to be really successful, you have to know how to do a hotel, a construction financing, a multifamily property, commercial and industrial; you have to be an expert, a one-stop shop.”
He operates with a level of competitiveness and eagerness that is a product of his time as a Division I golfer at Rider, which taught him the values of being coachable and never settling on his talents.
“I grew up coached, and so I was always absorbing information from very successful and impressive people,” he said. “That created a mentality: no matter what I do, how do I do it better?”
One such way that Domenico has added to the growth and evolution of the firm is through a direct lending platform called Progress Direct, which was launched in 2016. The platform, which offers $1 million to $20 million bridge loans, has funded over $150 million in debt as of this year.
—Mack Burke, Editor Commercial Observer.