Arbor Realty Trust - Slumdog Milionaires?

[Melanie P.]

Came across some interesting research from Viceroy. It mentions some of Arbor's clients and not in a positive light. You can read all the details for yourself here:

Why Viceroy Research is Short on Arbor Realty Trust

Below are some snippets that are included to link this report to individuals and entities that have promoted here or have had investors discuss the investment here so when people search for them they can find this data.

"The implied cap rate for the property is 4.5%, which is ~10bps below the current 10 T-Bond rate. The loan was
originated in 2021.

The investors, Ridge Capital Investors, paid only $33m for the property in December 2019, less than 2 years before a $43m loan was extended against a $63m collateral. This is absolutely abhorrent lending behavior and was somehow approved by a committee consisting only of the CEO,CCO, and EVP.

Nitya Capital is a Texas-based real estate investor founded and managed by Swapnil Agarwal. Nitya reportedly
faced distressed asset sales, lagging renovations, suspended cash distributions and deferring property and asset
management fees. Agarwal has promoted the idea of crowdfunding real estate which is basically how Nitya Capital operates. We note that an analysis of SEC Form D filed by Nitya associates appears to show its deal flow drying up.

Applesway Investment Group is led by Koteswar “Jay” Rao Gajavelli, another product of the anyone-can-do-it
real estate seminar circuit. The company made the news in April when Arbor foreclosed on four apartment
complexes in Houston worth $229m, after which Applesway mistakenly served mass eviction notices to residents
of the foreclosed properties

Icer is a New York-based investment firm that stated to industry publication Bisnow that it was seeking greener
pastures out-of-state seeking to escape New York’s regulatory environment. It appears to have settled in Georgia
where the Atlanta Journal Constitution revealed that they took to increasing rent to “as much as $2,000 a month
for a three-bedroom apartment that previously rented for hundreds of dollars less”.

Tides Equity landed in hot water earlier in 2023 when it announced the possibility of a capital raise from its
equity partners. The next day its largest investor AMC Investments raised the possibility of its own capital raise
to cover Tides’ contractor payments30. The funds supposedly earmarked for these payments were instead used
to cover its debt repayments. Tides reported it had entered workouts to some of its loans in September 2023
while Arbor failed to comment on whether its loans with Tides were included in that number

KeyCity Capital is a Dallas Fort Worth based private equity firm which markets itself as a connector to private
investors to real estate deals. It appears to do this through tele-marketed free dinner seminars. Failed to make payment for trash collection.

The Arch properties are secured against 2 Jacksonville Properties at 1706 ART Museum Drive and 1591 Lane
Avenue South and list as owners Paxe Palmer LP and Schweb Partners.

North Trio The owner of one of the loans is listed as Inner Light Ministries Inc, with the title owner address all at the address of Inner Light Ministries. The loan sponsors are Mark and Abraham Mermelstein, Yehuda Ruzohorsky, Boruch Fink, Joseph Friedman and Aaron Lazar, a consortium of investors who appear to have done deals together in the past.

Two loans list Hannan Lis and Gideon Pfeffer as loan sponsors secured against the Retreat at Farmington Hills in
the outskirts of Detroit and the Verona at the Park development in Washington. Likely owned by GSH Ventures,
another retail multifamily real estate scheme

Elisa Zhang is a real estate finfluencer, formerly a computer engineer, who markets herself through the Eliza
Zhang Financial Independence University41. Somehow this qualified her for a $72.225m loan for 2 properties
from Arbor in the 2021 FL3 and 2021 FL4 tranches. These properties are owned together with Lavatube Capital,
a husband-and-wife team touting high-growth low risk returns and Lane Kawaoka, a real estate podcaster.

Proudliving is a New Jersey based “owner and manager of real estate” which like other entities mentioned above
takes funds from accredited retail investors to invest in the multi-family area. Proudliving accounts for a multiproperty loan on 8 properties totaling $34.5m. The loan is listed as being in payment default with interest
payments capitalized.

The Cyclone portfolio lists the original borrower as various entities we believe to be subsidiaries of Cyclone
Investment Group, headed by Aaron Eichorn and Charles Aryeh who appears to have used a relative, Chiya Aryeh
as a sponsor for the loans.

We note that Trustee data sponsor and borrower data for earlier CLOs is inconsistent, and the nature of the loan
book is such that properties can be swapped in and out over time. We believe the above serves to show that
Arbor’s loans are not being made to the most sophisticated or financially sound borrowers, and some of them
have already hit hard times"