Crisis to Opportunity: This is How Experience and Infrastructure Create Alpha

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The commercial real estate market is experiencing its most significant transformation since the Great Financial Crisis, and for seasoned investors, the question isn't whether opportunities exist, it's whether you have the experience and infrastructure to capitalize on them. In the latest Peachtree Point of View episode, Managing Principal & CEO Greg Friedman, Managing Principal & CFO Jatin Desai, and President and Principal CRE, Daniel Siegel reveal how nearly two decades of strategic evolution has positioned Peachtree Group to thrive in today's dislocated market.

2007-2012: Building Through Crisis

When Peachtree Group launched in 2007 with just five team members, the timing couldn't have been more challenging or more instructive. The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) became the firm's first masterclass in identifying mispriced risk and executing complex transactions when others retreated. This foundational experience, from 2009 to 2011, of "dusting off the playbook" by providing rescue capital through hook notes and restructuring distressed assets established the operational framework that drives today's strategy.

"We've always been very much focused on mispriced risk," explains Friedman. "There's always going to be challenges and opportunities, but we're always looking for where is there that mispriced risk."

2012-2020: Strategic Infrastructure Development

The decade following the GFC saw Peachtree systematically build the infrastructure that now provides competitive advantages. The firm vertically integrated operations, bringing property management, loan servicing, construction management and their broker-dealer in-house by 2010. This wasn't just operational efficiency, it was strategic positioning for future market dislocations.

Most significantly, Peachtree began its heavy focus on private credit in 2014, recognizing the asset class as "very, very much mispriced" with substantial opportunities. While competitors are now rushing into private credit for the first time, Peachtree has 15 years of direct lending experience across 630+ credit transactions with a remarkable track record: only 2% of deals required asset takeback, with just a 0.17% loss rate on $2.3 billion in deployed credit capital.

2020-Present: Experience Meets Opportunity

Today's market validates every strategic decision made over the past 18 years. With over $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans maturing into a dramatically different interest rate environment, regional banks are facing the exact pressures Peachtree learned to navigate during the GFC.

The firm's growth trajectory tells the story: from five employees in 2007 to 100 in 2019, and now 300+ team members managing $4 billion in equity across $8 billion in total assets. But scale alone doesn't explain their current advantage; it's the operational sophistication built through multiple market cycles.

Executing Where Others Cannot

The current environment reveals why infrastructure matters more than capital. As Desai notes, "There's a lot of private credit outthere, but most of them have come to us because they can't originate. They don't have the infrastructure, they don't have the originators, underwriters, servicing in-house."

The Relationship Dividend

Eighteen years of market presence have created another competitive moat: deep bank relationships across 40+ financial institution counterparties. These relationships now provide access to off-market transactions as banks seek creative solutions to manage regulatory pressure around commercial real estate exposure.

"Banks are being very constructive, thoughtful and strategic about how they're trading paper," explains Siegel. "Most of. these have been off-market transactions, and we're sourcing them mostly internally through our existing bank relationships."

Strategic Investment Implications:

• Experience-driven opportunity recognition: Peachtree's GFC playbook from 2009-2011 is directly applicable to today's market, providing tested frameworks for special situations and rescue capital deployment

• Infrastructure as competitive advantage: 15 years ofprivate credit experience and vertically integrated operations enable executionwhere new market entrants fail to close deals they've underwritten

• Relationship-sourced deal flow: Deep banking relationships across 40+ institutions provide exclusive access to off-market transactions,creating sustainable competitive advantages

• Proven downside protection: Track record of 98% asset retention rate and 0.17% loss ratio on $2.3 billion in credit investments demonstrates risk management capabilities refined through multiple cycles

• Market timing validation: Current dislocation represents the type of "mispriced risk" opportunity that has driven Peachtree's strategy since inception, with 3+ year runway for deployment

The discussion reveals why this moment represents more than just another market opportunity. It's the convergence of two decades of strategic preparation with optimal market conditions.

For sophisticated investors evaluating how market history informs current opportunity, this episode provides rare insight into how institutional platforms leverage experience, relationships and infrastructure to generate alpha in dislocated markets.

Listen to the full Peachtree Point of View episode to hear detailed examples of how decades of market experience translate into current deal execution and investment strategy. Follow Peachtree Point of View on your preferred podcast platform for ongoing insights into institutional-quality real estate investment approaches.

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