Guest: Warren de Haan, CEO and Co-Founder, ACORE Capital
Warren de Haan is CEO and co-founder of ACORE Capital, one of the largest non-bank commercial real estate lenders in the United States with more than $17 billion of AUM. Before co-founding ACORE in 2015, he was chief originations officer at Starwood Property Trust, a founding partner and head of originations at Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance, and an originator at Nomura.
De Haan traces ACORE’s credit-first approach to 2007, when his Countrywide team hedged and sold a roughly $4 billion loan book as underwriting loosened. He explains how lenders are working through the maturity wall, why reset-basis deals are attractive, and where he sees mispriced risk in 2021-vintage multifamily and industrial. He also argues that many newer private credit entrants will get washed out.
Key Takeaways
Countrywide’s commercial team stopped originating in 2007, hedged a roughly $4 billion loan book and sold it to regional banks. That experience is why de Haan calls ACORE credit first and downside protection first.
“You can hedge credit spread. You can hedge the underlying index, but you can’t hedge a bad loan.”
Warren de Haan, [15:33]
When de Haan joined Starwood Property Trust, private equity firms did not lend to one another. Breaking that taboo helped create today’s market, where big sponsors routinely borrow from each other’s debt funds.
“There was literally no precedent for Blackstone borrowing money from Starwood or borrowing money from KKR or from Apollo or from whomever. And today it’s the market.”
Warren de Haan, [26:38]
Forced sellers are resetting basis, which de Haan says is a good place to be as a lender. He points to a fully leased San Francisco office building that traded at a fraction of its prior value.
“It was an office deal, fully leased, 1,200 bucks a foot. The prior owner, the lender was at 800 bucks a foot. They sold it for 600 bucks a foot to our borrower. Our loan is 375 a foot.”
Warren de Haan, [49:08]
With cap rate compression gone, de Haan says selection matters more than themes. He flags mispriced 2021-vintage multifamily loans and spec industrial boxes whose owners now want cash-neutral refinancings.
“If you can’t create value intrinsically at the real estate, then it’s probably not a place for you to play.”
Warren de Haan, [59:21]
ACORE averages $85 million loans with 140 employees, and de Haan says that scale is hard to copy. He expects many new credit platforms to be washed out, especially those that depend on a single warehouse line.
“You can run a small business like this, 100 million in capital, 200 million in capital, country club money, but that’s a hobby, to be honest.”
Warren de Haan, [1:09:24]
