Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC is owned by affiliates of Sterling Equities and Galaxy Investment Management, LLC.
Each is a private, family-owned enterprise built on a foundation of integrity, intellect and hard work.
This alliance provides Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC with significant financial resources, sophistication and the expertise and experience in real estate finance to serve our borrowers and investees well.
Our Key Senior Professionals ….
Seth B. Lipsay
Executive Managing Director and Founder of Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC
Mr. Lipsay’s professional career has included senior leadership roles in a variety of public and private organizations in the real estate, mortgage, and CMBS arenas, including Kenneth Leventhal & Company, Kidder Peabody, Paine Webber, and UBS and jointly sponsored investments with prominent institutional investors, including Reckson Associates, G. Soros Realty, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and Five Mile Capital. Mr. Lipsay has recognized expertise in originating, underwriting, structuring, negotiating and harvesting complex debt, mezzanine and equity investments in the commercial real estate and specialty finance arenas. His experience includes originations in excess of $2 billion of commercial and multifamily mortgage and mezzanine loans and more than $500 million of corporate leveraged lease financings for leading private and institutional owners and acquirers of real estate portfolios. As a trader on a leading CMBS desk, Mr. Lipsay was intimately involved in the securitization and trading of billions of dollars worth of public and private CMBS, including the bond structuring, credit rating and institutional sales processes. Mr. Lipsay also has considerable principal and advisory experience in portfolio sales, contentious workouts and complex restructurings of commercial real estate and mortgage assets. He has played a leadership role representing mortgage borrowers and lenders in many large corporate and portfolio restructurings. In addition, he has successfully represented major banks and insurance companies in orchestrating large-scale portfolio sale processes, coordinating the simultaneous marketing, documentation and closings of multiple pools of performing and non-performing loans and properties among multiple bidders and back-up bidders. Mr. Lipsay received his MBA in finance and real estate from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, his JD from the Hofstra University School of Law and his BA in public policy from New College.
Ken Partlow
Executive Senior Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC
Mr. Partlow has over twenty five years of experience in real estate investment and lending. For the past eleven years he has served as Chief Financial Officer for the New World Group. New World’s activities primarily are a group of specialty finance companies, two of which were lenders in the small to midsize equipment segments of the leasing industry ($600MM in assets, over $800MM in funded transactions), a nationally recognized specialty finance company which purchases and sells periodic payment streams, and a real estate mezzanine lender. Ken had significant responsibility in securing $600MM in warehouse financing from a major Wall Street bank and developed a hedging strategy for these facilities (executed $590MM of interest rate Swap transactions). In addition, Ken developed, implemented and supervised all of the operational processes for funding, custody, treasury functions, and accounting as well as a highly regarded capability in providing reporting to customers/borrowers, institutional and high net worth equity ownership as well as a variety of debt providers.
Prior to New World, Ken served as a Senior Vice President of Reckson Strategic Venture Partners, LLC, a $900MM real estate venture capital fund. This fund made investments in real estate operating companies which had concentrations in student housing, small box retail, assisted living facilities, commercial and medical office buildings, a parking land bank investment, and private correctional facilities. One of these investments was taken public and is now the largest student housing company, (NYSE: ACC). Mr. Partlow was responsible for asset management, construction monitoring, direct interaction with equity holders, and treasury for the fund. Prior to Reckson, Mr. Partlow was a Senior Manager for a regional CPA firm specializing in the real estate industry. Mr. Partlow earned a BS in accounting from SUNY Plattsburgh. Mr. Partlow is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Qiuwei Chen
Managing Director of Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC
Mr. Chen has significant experience in real estate private equity investing, direct lending and the restructuring of commercial real estate. For the past eleven years he has served as Senior Vice President with the New World Group, where he was involved in mezzanine lending as well as numerous significant restructurings and recapitalizations, including the successful restructuring of General Growth Properties, the largest real estate bankruptcy in US history.
Prior to New World, Mr. Chen was with D.E. Shaw & Co., The Praedium Group and UBS Global Asset Management. In his career, he has helped invest over $800 million of equity and high yield debt in a variety of transaction types including over twenty thousand rent regulated apartment units in New York City, horizontal development/home building, condominium development, entity level investments, pre-IPO financing, hospital development, hospitality, gaming, bankruptcy sale, and strategic repositioning/redevelopment of office and retail assets.
Mr. Chen earned his BA from Cornell University.
Frank Tiriolo
Managing Director of Galaxy Realty Capital, LLC
Mr. Tiriolo has significant experience in commercial real estate investment, asset management, deal restructuring and special servicing. Prior to Galaxy, he served as a Director and Senior Asset Manager at Situs Asset Management. While at Situs, he managed a team responsible for the asset management of $1.5 billion in transitional loans held by TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE: TRTX) and collateralized by properties requiring significant renovation, repositioning and new construction.
Prior to Situs, Mr. Tiriolo served as a Director at Five Mile Capital Partners LLC for over nine years where he was responsible for underwriting, deal structuring and asset management of Five Mile’s distressed debt and equity investments within its opportunity fund. During his tenure at Five Mile, he participated in direct equity, preferred equity and mezzanine investing across all major asset classes. In addition, Mr. Tiriolo was involved in the business plan creation, financing, performance monitoring and disposition of portfolio investments including a $600 million, 16,928 key limited-service hotel portfolio. Prior to Five Mile, Mr. Tiriolo worked for four years on the U.S. treasury and government agency bond desk at UBS Investment Bank.
Mr. Tiriolo received his BBA in Finance from Loyola University New Orleans and his MBA from Fordham University.