Arrow hires lender-side veteran to build multifamily debt desk

Arrow Real Estate Advisors has hired Ari Mandelbaum as a director. Mandelbaum spent 2011 to 2014 at Greystone. He then put in a decade at Dwight Capital, where he rose to executive vice president. Commercial Observer first reported the move.

At Dwight, Mandelbaum worked on agency and bridge loans for multifamily and other property types. His originations include a $36 million bridge loan. That loan refinanced Villa Annette Apartments in Moreno Valley, Calif., in 2023. At Arrow he will negotiate multifamily loans and help borrowers navigate alternative financing strategies.

The hire follows Arrow's earlier recruitment of Jeff Weinberg from Meridian Capital Group as a managing director. Morris Betesh founded Arrow in fall 2024. The firm has been building a roster that pairs broker-side execution with lender-side underwriting experience. Betesh said Mandelbaum's understanding of underwriting, credit and execution allows him to approach financing from both sides of the table and give clients deeper insight into the capital-raising process.

The orientation is deliberate. Cap rates are up in all nine census divisions, and Private Real Estate Daily has reported repricing even where cash flow grows. With a $3 trillion wall of commercial real estate maturities ahead, multifamily borrowers need advisers who can anticipate how a lender will read a deal. Mandelbaum's decade on the credit desk gives Arrow that fluency. For a two-year-old shop competing with established houses, pulling lender-side talent is the most direct route to a hearing. Mandelbaum's arrival says Arrow intends to be a full-service debt placement desk, not a one-off broker. The pitch will be tested as that wall of maturities comes due.