When Abraham Cooper left JLL in January 2020 to launch Polly Park Capital, the world shut down within weeks. He saw it as an opening. By summer, he had financed Hudson Heritage, a $65 million construction loan for a ShopRite-anchored mixed-use community in upstate New York and one of the few retail construction loans to close anywhere in the country during the pandemic.

Polly Park was built as a merchant bank with two business lines. On the advisory side, Abraham has placed capital for transactions ranging from a $360 million construction financing for a senior living community in Tysons Corner to a $75 million programmatic joint venture for a Wilmington-based operator scaling to 10,000 units. On the principal side, he co-invests alongside local operators on ground-up development, anchored by a high-net-worth partner and focused on the New York tri-state and South Florida.

In this episode of The Dealmakers' Edge, Aaron Strauss and Abraham Cooper discuss how Polly Park's merchant banking and co-GP businesses work together, why he targets East Coast coastal cities where capital and tenancy understand the product, how he vets operating partners on co-GP deals, and the grounding that keeps him steady through the stress of dealmaking.

1:16 - Polly Park Capital and the merchant bank model

1:50 - Starting at CBRE and moving to JLL capital markets

2:16 - Launching Polly Park in 2020 and seeing the pandemic as an opportunity

2:50 - Financing Hudson Heritage during the pandemic

3:28 - How brokerage experience at CBRE and JLL shaped the principal mindset

6:47 - Having $200 million of advisory runway going into the pandemic

7:55 - Splitting time between merchant banking and co-GP investing

8:42 - Range of advisory transactions from Tysons Corner to Nashville to Wilmington

9:59 - Vetting local operators and structuring co-GP deals

11:34 - Targeting East Coast coastal cities where capital and tenancy understand the product

12:28 - Equanimity and grounding through the stress of dealmaking

15:00 - Reading the market and why better days are ahead

16:52 - Scaling from high-net-worth to institutional capital

18:39 - Using AI to augment, not replace, human underwriting

20:22 - Sticking to core markets and what's exciting ahead

Mentioned In Building a Raising Capital and Co-GP Investing with Abraham Cooper

Polly Park Capital | LinkedIn

Abraham Cooper on LinkedIn

Enjoy the show? Have a guest in mind? Email us at podcast@aystrauss.com to let us know your feedback and who you want to hear on the next episode.

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Adam Steinberg is a Principal at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, where he co-heads the equity business and chairs the equity approval committee. Since joining in 2004, Adam has focused exclusively on raising common equity for clients, closing transactions aggregating billions of dollars of capital across traditional and alternative asset classes.

Prior to Ackman-Ziff, Adam spent four years as a principal at Partners Group, investing on behalf of an opportunity fund. Before that, he helped build a capital markets group at AEW Capital Management and worked as a capital advisor at Boston Financial Group, which was later acquired by Lend Lease.

Adam began his real estate career as a financial analyst in the real estate group at Salomon Brothers during the early 1990s. He holds a degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Cornell University.

Insights from Adam Steinberg on Raising Common Equity

When Ackman-Ziff's equity team evaluates a new assignment, the first question isn't whether the deal is good. It's whether they can win. Adam Steinberg and his partners treat time the way other firms treat capital. It's the scarce resource, and every deal that comes through the door gets measured against the probability of getting it done.

The process starts with investors. Before sourcing deals, Adam's team goes to equity partners first, asking what's on their shortlist and what they can actually get through their investment committee. That investor-first approach has pushed the practice into alternative asset classes like powered land, clustered student housing, and solar and battery storage, where risk-adjusted returns are more compelling than in traditional deals.

In this episode of The Dealmakers' Edge, Aaron Strauss and Adam Steinberg discuss how the equity advisory business has evolved over two decades, why common equity is harder to raise than preferred, what it takes to get a deal done, and how sponsors can position themselves to attract institutional capital for the first time.

3:18 - First real estate job as a financial analyst at Salomon Brothers during the early nineties recession

4:23 - Three lessons from Salomon Brothers that still drive how he works today

5:36 - Cornell, investment sales, and building a capital markets group at AEW

7:30 - Joining Ackman-Ziff in 2004 and growing the equity business

10:17 - How the practice evaluates deals and why time is the scarce resource

13:06 - Common equity versus preferred and mezzanine

15:04 - Reverse engineering deal flow by going to investors first

18:22 - Programmatic versus one-off deals and what a successful program requires

21:41 - When to stay with friends-and-family capital and when to move to institutional

23:26 - Using a recapitalized asset as a seed deal for an institutional partner

26:24 - Where the common equity market stands today

30:47 - Finding the mental break that forces you fully off the deal

Mentioned In Raising Common Equity and Building an Investor-First Practice with Adam Steinberg

Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group | LinkedIn

Adam Steinberg on LinkedIn

Enjoy the show? Have a guest in mind? Email us at podcast@aystrauss.com to let us know your feedback and who you want to hear on the next episode.

Connect with Aaron and the A.Y. Strauss team:

• Our website (www.AYStrauss.com)
• Aaron's website bio page (Aaron's bio page)
• Aaron's LinkedIn account (LinkedIn)
• Our Twitter account (@AYStrauss)

Cannabis is showing up in more CRE conversations than ever, and most of the people having those conversations are figuring it out as they go. The asset class looks familiar enough on the surface that standard deal instincts seem to apply. They rarely do.

Jennifer Cabrera and Sahar Ayinehsazian have guided landlords, lenders, and investors through enough of these deals to know where the assumptions break down. The financing options exist but require a different approach to find. The regulatory framework is specific enough that getting local counsel early changes outcomes. And the market is maturing in ways that are creating real opportunity for the people paying attention.

In this episode of The Dealmakers' Edge, Aaron Strauss is joined by Jennifer Cabrera and Sahar Ayinehsazian to discuss what landlords need to know before signing a cannabis lease, how lenders are approaching cannabis-related properties, and where the real opportunities are as more state markets mature. For a deeper dive into the regulatory outlook for the year ahead, Jennifer and Sahar are hosting a webinar on April 21st.

3:09 - Retail leasing trends and what makes a cannabis-zoned property valuable

5:01 - The landlord, lender, and tenant triangle and why transparency with your lender matters

8:08 - How to find a bank willing to finance a cannabis-related property

9:45 - Financing options for operators and sponsors without institutional backing

13:35 - What a cannabis lease actually needs to cover and why standard counsel isn't enough

16:03 - Local approval in New Jersey and why planning boards get it wrong

19:07 - Building lease exit provisions for regulatory surprises outside anyone's control

20:42 - Default post-occupancy and the opportunity a departing cannabis tenant can leave behind

23:31 - Why cannabis operators have no bankruptcy protection and what landlords should plan for instead

25:56 - The unlicensed market problem and what happened in Los Angeles

30:13 - Landlord liability for unlicensed cannabis tenants

31:36 - Advertising restrictions for cannabis and what billboard and signage owners need to know

34:08 - When to call cannabis counsel and what it actually costs to wait

37:29 - Market maturation, the liquor store model, and the hemp beverage loophole closing

41:21 - Why market maturation is improving the quality of cannabis investment opportunities

Mentioned In Cannabis Law and Commercial Real Estate with Jennifer Cabrera and Sahar Ayinehsazian

A.Y. Strauss | LinkedIn

Jennifer Cabrera on LinkedIn

Sahar Ayinehsazian on LinkedIn

Sign up for the April 21st webinar - A.Y. Strauss Presents: The 2026 Cannabinoid Compass: Legal, Compliance & Regulatory Concerns

Enjoy the show? Have a guest in mind? Email us at podcast@aystrauss.com to let us know your feedback and who you want to hear on the next episode.

Connect with Aaron and the A.Y. Strauss team:

• Our website (www.AYStrauss.com)
• Aaron's website bio page (Aaron's bio page)
• Aaron's LinkedIn account (LinkedIn)
• Our Twitter account (@AYStrauss)