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US Commercial Real Estate Debt

Our commercial real estate debt platform reflects AB’s research-driven investment approach and long-term perspective. As an alternative to traditional lending sources, we seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through flexible, relationship-oriented financing solutions. Our approach combines disciplined underwriting with a solutions-focused mindset and is intended to help address borrowers’ financing needs across market cycles, subject to market conditions, investment criteria, and transaction-specific considerations.

Experienced Team. Extensive Resources.

Commercial real estate debt investing is a core component of AB’s private alternatives platform, with established lending businesses in both the US and Europe. Since launching in the US in 2012 and expanding into Europe in 2020, the platform has raised approximately $14 billion in dedicated capital commitments.*

The platform invests across a broad range of commercial real estate credit opportunities, including senior loans, whole loans, subordinate loans and construction financing across core, light transitional and transitional business plans. Investment opportunities are sourced through direct originations, repeat borrower relationships, co-lending arrangements and select participations across institutional-quality assets and property sectors throughout the US market. Supported by extensive structuring expertise and an active asset management approach, the platform is designed to provide flexible financing solutions tailored to the needs of borrowers while seeking attractive risk-adjusted outcomes for investors.

Success in the US commercial real estate market requires rigorous sourcing, comprehensive underwriting, and proactive asset management. AB’s US Commercial Real Estate Debt (“US CRED”) team brings extensive market experience, deep real estate credit expertise and longstanding industry relationships to identify and structure compelling investment opportunities. Supported by a disciplined investment process and robust risk management framework, the team seeks to deliver differentiated financing solutions for borrowers and attractive risk-adjusted outcomes for investors.

*Capital raised as of 31 December 2025

US $10.5 Bil+
Assets Under Management
196
Transactions Completed to Date

*As of December 31, 2025

Representative Transactions

Floating Loan
Portfolio / Multi-market Industrial
Investment Date: March 13, 2025
Floating Loan
Bloomington, IN Student Housing
Investment Date: May 15, 2025
Fixed Rate
Mountain View, CA Multifamily
Investment Date: May 30, 2025
Floating Loan
Dallas, TX Office
Investment Date: September 26, 2025
View Recent Transactions

Team

Peter J. Gordon

Head of US CRED and Chief Investment Officer
Location: New York
Peter's Bio

Peter J. Gordon

Peter J. Gordon is Chief Investment Officer and Head of the US Commercial Real Estate Debt (US-CRED) team. US-CRED oversees nearly $12 billion in committed capital from insurance companies, pension funds and banks, across four vintage closed-end funds and various other institutional mandates. Gordon has been gaining experience in the US commercial real estate markets since 2001 and has also spent four years in construction management. Previously, he was managing director of Commercial Real Estate Debt. Prior to joining the firm in 2016, Gordon served as managing director and head of commercial real estate (CRE) whole loan originations at Angelo, Gordon & Co., a global alternative investment-management firm, where he led the CRE whole loan team, responsible for sourcing, pricing, financing and structuring transactions as well as managing assets in the investment portfolio. Prior to that, Gordon was a senior member of the real estate finance and investment banking groups at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, where he was involved in all aspects of commercial real estate lending, from originations for balance sheet and commercial mortgage-backed securities to loan structuring, syndication and securitization. Gordon holds a BS in mathematics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and an MBA from Columbia University. Location: New York

Midge Brogan

Managing Director
Location: New York
Midge's Bio

Midge Brogan

Midge Brogan is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Commercial Real Estate Private Debt Fund, with broad responsibility for finance, reporting and asset-management functions across the US Commercial Real Estate Debt platform. Prior to joining the firm in 2020, she managed Park Praedium, a company she founded in 2009, where she advised on workouts, recapitalizations, and restructurings within commercial real estate. From 2015 to 2017, Brogan was a managing director for Colony NorthStar. Prior to that, she served as a managing director for Sabal Financial Group, and for the Global Real Estate Group at Lehman Brothers. Brogan holds a BS (cum laude) in business management with a concentration in accounting from Boston College, and an MBA with concentrations in finance and real estate from the George Washington University. She is also a member of 100 Women in Finance and WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate and was named one of the Top 50 Women Real Estate Professionals in 2004. Location: New York

Edward Gellert

Managing Director
Location: New York
Edward's Bio

Edward Gellert

Edward Gellert is a Managing Director for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, with approximately 30 years of real estate industry experience, including investment and portfolio management, lending, distressed-focused investing, deal sourcing and the operation and development of real estate assets. Prior to joining AB, he was a senior portfolio manager at Avenue Capital Group, where he directed the investment activities of the Avenue Real Estate Strategy. He also served as chairman, CEO and president of ACRE Realty Investors. Before joining Avenue in 2004, Gellert founded EDGE Partners, where he served as a co-managing member of joint-venture entities that developed, repositioned and owned over 1.2 million square feet of properties. Previously, he sourced and arranged distressed debt and property acquisitions for Argent Ventures and Amroc Investments, and was an analyst and asset manager for BRT Realty Trust. Gellert holds a BSM from the AB Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Location: New York

Yanshu Li

Head of Asset Management
Location: New York
Yanshu's Bio

Yanshu Li

Yanshu Li is Head of Asset Management for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, responsible for overseeing the asset management of the commercial real estate loan portfolio. Prior to joining AB in 2019, she managed KG Realty Investments, a value-add residential real estate investment company, which she cofounded in 2013. From 2010 to 2013, Li worked as an associate in the Commercial Real Estate Debt Group at Blackstone, focusing on high-yield debt origination, structuring and asset management. From 2006 to 2009, she was an associate in the CMBS Large Loan Group at Morgan Stanley, responsible for underwriting debt investments across all property types. Li holds a BA in economics from Princeton University. Location: New York

Shane McGrogan

Director
Location: New York
Shane's Bio

Shane McGrogan

Shane McGrogan is a Director for US Commercial Real Estate Debt in AB’s Real Estate Group, responsible for providing cash-management, accounting, operations and portfolio analytics. Prior to joining the firm in 2017, he worked as a supervisor for SEI Investments Company, an analyst for Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services and an analyst for Bank of New York Mellon. McGrogan holds a BSBA in marketing from Bloomsburg University and is a CFA charterholder. Location: New York

Taylor Callaway

Managing Director, Co-Head of Originations
Location: Los Angeles
Taylor's Bio

Taylor Callaway

Taylor Callaway is a Managing Director for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he is jointly responsible for leading our 11 investment professionals dedicated to the origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2017 as an associate, he worked in the Real Estate Investments Group at Crow Holdings, where he was responsible for sourcing and underwriting equity investments across multiple product types. Before Crow Holdings, Callaway was an associate at The Related Companies, where he focused on the origination of high-yield commercial real estate loans. He holds a BS in real estate finance from the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. Location: Los Angeles

Evan Katzin

Managing Director, Co-Head of Originations
Location: New York
Evan's Bio

Evan Katzin

Evan Katzin is a Managing Director for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he is jointly responsible for leading our 11 investment professionals dedicated to the origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2014 as an analyst, he was an investment banking analyst in Goldman Sachs's Real Estate Financing Group. Katzin began his career in 2010 in LNR Property's analyst rotational program. He holds a BA in finance from the University of Florida. Location: New York

Austin Brush

Vice President
Austin's Bio

Austin Brush

Austin Brush is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Prior to joining the firm in 2022, he was an analyst on the commercial real estate debt teams at Slate Asset Management and Annaly Capital Management. Brush started his career at Rialto as a commercial mortgage-backed securities analyst. He holds a BBA in real estate and urban land economics from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Location: New York

Jake Fideler

Vice President
Location: Los Angeles
Jacob.Fideler@alliancebernstein.com
Jake's Bio

Jacob Fideler

Jacob Fideler is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate team, where he is responsible for underwriting and assisting in the origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2021, Fideler spent two years as a capital markets analyst at Jones Lang LaSalle, focusing on debt and equity placement across all product types. He holds a BS (cum laude) in business administration from Orfalea College of Business at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Location: Los Angeles

Max Heilbrunn

Vice President
Location: Los Angeles
Max's Bio

Max Heilbrunn

Max Heilbrunn is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate team, where he focuses on the origination of value-add and core plus commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2025, Heilbrunn spent half a decade at Rockwood Capital as a credit strategies vice president, where he worked on mezzanine loan acquisitions and structured finance opportunities. He holds a BBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Location: Los Angeles

Nandita Makam

Vice President
Location: New York
Nandita's Bio

Nandita Makam

Nandita Makam is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Prior to joining AB in 2020, she was an associate at H.I.G. Capital in the Distressed Debt and Special Situations Group, focusing on real estate investments. Before that, Makam spent two years in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She holds a BS in Economics (cum laude) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Location: New York

Trey Marker

Vice President
Location: New York
Trey's Bio

Trey Marker

Trey Marker is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Joining in 2019, where he focuses on origination of value-add commercial real estate loans. Marker previously spent two years at Torchlight Investors as an acquisitions and originations analyst. He holds a BS in accounting from Pennsylvania State University. Location: New York

Abe Annabi

Associate
Location: New York
 
Abe's Bio

Abe Annabi

Abe Annabi is an Associate for the Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he is responsible for underwriting and originating commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2025, Annabi was an acquisitions associate at CIM Group and an investment banking analyst at Bank of America. He holds a BA in financial economics from Columbia University. Location: New York

Anna Baumeister

Associate
Anna's Bio

Anna Baumeister

Anna Baumeister is an Associate on the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where she assists in the underwriting and origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2023, she was a member of the Debt Originations team at PIMCO Prime Real Estate, as well as the Commercial Loan Sales team at Mission Capital Advisors. Baumeister holds a BS in hotel administration from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Location: New York

Jack Geiger

Associate
Jack's Bio

Jack Geiger

Jack Geiger is an Associate for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Prior to joining AB in 2024, he was an investment banking associate at J.P. Morgan on the Real Estate Special Opportunities team. Geiger holds a BBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Location: New York

Henry Johnson

Associate
Henry's Bio

Henry Johnson

Henry Johnson is an Assistant Vice President and Associate for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he is responsible for underwriting and assisting in the origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining AB in 2025, Johnson worked as a senior associate on the Debt Originations team at Thorofare Capital. He holds a BS in economics from Texas Christian University. Location: Los Angeles      

Tobin Shanks

Associate
Location: New York
 
Tobins Bio

Tobin Shanks

Tobin Shanks is an Associate for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he assists in the underwriting and origination of commercial real estate loans. Prior to joining the firm in 2025, he was a member of the Real Estate Capital Partners team at Royal Bank of Canada. Shanks holds a BBA in finance from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. Location: New York 

Yanshu Li

Head of Asset Management
Location: New York
Yanshu's Bio

Yanshu Li

Yanshu Li is Head of Asset Management for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, responsible for overseeing the asset management of the commercial real estate loan portfolio. Prior to joining AB in 2019, she managed KG Realty Investments, a value-add residential real estate investment company, which she cofounded in 2013. From 2010 to 2013, Li worked as an associate in the Commercial Real Estate Debt Group at Blackstone, focusing on high-yield debt origination, structuring and asset management. From 2006 to 2009, she was an associate in the CMBS Large Loan Group at Morgan Stanley, responsible for underwriting debt investments across all property types. Li holds a BA in economics from Princeton University. Location: New York

Kevin Aliaga

Vice President
Location: New York
Kevin's Bio

Kevin Aliaga

Kevin Aliaga is an Asset Manager for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Before joining the firm in 2022, he was a senior vice president for SitusAMC, managing commercial real estate debt for a high-yield debt fund. Previously, Aliaga was a vice president for Asset Management at CIT Group, and prior to that, he was a director of Asset Management at Arbor Realty Trust. He holds a BA in economics from Stony Brook University. Location: New York

Sean Fahey

Vice President
 
Sean's Bio

Sean Fahey

Sean Fahey is a Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team, where he focuses on special situations across the commercial real estate loan portfolio. Prior to joining AB in 2025, Fahey spent seven years at AEW Capital Management, with roles in both the Private Debt and Private Equity groups. He holds a BA from Harvard College. Location: New York

Caitlin Farrell

Vice President
Location: New York
Caitlin's Bio

Caitlin Farrell

Caitlin Farrell is an Asset Manager on the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Before joining AB in 2022, she was an associate director at Fitch Ratings on the CMBS Surveillance team. Prior to her time at Fitch, Farrell was an assistant vice president at Annaly Capital Management for the Commercial Real Estate Debt team. She holds a BA in economics and accounting from College of the Holy Cross. Location: New York

Sean Gibbs

Vice President
Location: New York
Sean's Bio

Sean Gibbs

Sean Gibbs is an Asset Manager for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Before joining the firm in 2023, he was a senior vice president for SitusAMC, managing commercial real estate debt for a high-yield debt fund. Previously, Gibbs was a senior asset manager for Morgan Stanley’s Commercial Real Estate Debt team, and prior to that, was an associate director of CMBS surveillance at Fitch Ratings. He holds a BA in economics from Rutgers University and an MS in commercial real estate finance from New York University. Location: New York

Jason Kennedy

Assistant Vice President
Jason's Bio

Jason Kennedy

Jason Kennedy is an Assistant Vice President for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Before joining AB in 2022, he was a capital-markets analyst for the Debt, Equity and Structured Finance team at Newmark. Kennedy holds a BSBA in management from Stonehill College. Location: New York

Midge Brogan

Managing Director
Location: New York
Midge's Bio

Midge Brogan

Midge Brogan is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Commercial Real Estate Private Debt Fund, with broad responsibility for finance, reporting and asset-management functions across the US Commercial Real Estate Debt platform. Prior to joining the firm in 2020, she managed Park Praedium, a company she founded in 2009, where she advised on workouts, recapitalizations, and restructurings within commercial real estate. From 2015 to 2017, Brogan was a managing director for Colony NorthStar. Prior to that, she served as a managing director for Sabal Financial Group, and for the Global Real Estate Group at Lehman Brothers. Brogan holds a BS (cum laude) in business management with a concentration in accounting from Boston College, and an MBA with concentrations in finance and real estate from the George Washington University. She is also a member of 100 Women in Finance and WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate and was named one of the Top 50 Women Real Estate Professionals in 2004. Location: New York

Shane McGrogan

Director
Location: New York
Shane's Bio

Shane McGrogan

Shane McGrogan is a Director for US Commercial Real Estate Debt in AB’s Real Estate Group, responsible for providing cash-management, accounting, operations and portfolio analytics. Prior to joining the firm in 2017, he worked as a supervisor for SEI Investments Company, an analyst for Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services and an analyst for Bank of New York Mellon. McGrogan holds a BSBA in marketing from Bloomsburg University and is a CFA charterholder. Location: New York

Avi Spitz

Associate
Location: New York
Avi's Bio

Avi Spitz

Avi Spitz is an Associate for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. Prior to joining the firm in 2021, he was an associate at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, in the Fund Services & Oversight group. Previously, Spitz worked at AB in Private Wealth Management, focusing on Alternative Product Management. He holds a BS in finance and business intelligence (summa cum laude) from the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. Location: New York

Cara Vitale

Associate
Location: New York
Cara's Bio

Cara Vitale

Cara Vitale is an Associate on the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team. She is responsible for supporting the team’s capital markets and operations initiatives. Prior to this role, Vitale managed the fund operations for AB’s Energy Opportunity Funds. Before joining AB in 2017, she was an associate with UBS Financial Services. Vitale holds a BA in economics and international development studies from McGill University, Montreal. Location: New York

Melanie Fisher

Melanie's Bio

Melanie Fisher

Melanie Fisher is the Director Internal Counsel for the US Commercial Real Estate Debt team at AB. She joined the firm after a long tenure in the life company investment and asset-management fields. Fisher spent over 20 years with Aegon Asset Management as legal counsel and also held various leadership roles outside of the Law Department, including roles in asset management, operations, accounting and reporting. As vice president and director, she was responsible for a commercial/residential/reverse mortgage loan portfolio exceeding US$15 billion. Fisher’s responsibilities included supporting the US Transamerica Life general account clients and assisting in the development of Aegon’s robust third-party asset-management platform. While in her operational role, she was the driving force in raising Aegon’s S&P servicer rating for commercial and residential lending to the highest possible level. Fisher took a break from financial services for several years and served as chief financial officer and chief legal officer at Van Meter, a top-25 US electrical distributor based in the Midwest. Prior to her corporate work, she was in private law practice, specializing in real estate, contracts, bankruptcy and lending, and was a law clerk to the Honorable Paul J. Kilburg, former chief justice of the US Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Iowa. Fisher holds a BA in business management and sociology from Luther College, an MBA from the University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business and a JD from the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was an editor of the Journal of Corporation Law. Location: New York  

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