There’s a quiet power shift happening in commercial real estate, and if you’re not watching the family offices, you’re missing the story.
While institutions pause, underwrite endlessly, and wrestle with their committees, family offices are stepping into the void—with capital, conviction, and creativity.
Catal Capital is a prime example. They’ve launched a private credit platform focused on value-add and construction lending, closing a $20 million industrial deal in New York just this past year. They’re chasing opportunity in self-storage and mixed-use too, not waiting around for the next Fed move.
And they’re not alone.
At the Kaufman Family Office, we’re seeing—and actively leaning into—the same trend. We’ve expanded beyond equity and development into direct lending, especially in overlooked markets and underserved deal types. From providing preferred equity to recapitalizing stalled projects, we’re moving with speed and intent while others wait on the sidelines.
So why now? Why family offices? Why this wave?
✅ Speed Over Bureaucracy
Unlike institutions, family offices aren’t buried under 14-person investment committees and regulatory bottlenecks. We can—and do—move fast. That agility lets us fill gaps where traditional lenders have retreated.
In our case, that’s meant stepping into construction and bridge lending across markets like the Midwest, Texas, and New England. It also means deploying capital into niche opportunities like student housing, modular workforce housing, and office-to-resi conversions. These deals don’t always fit the box. But we’re not investing in boxes—we’re investing in outcomes.
📈 From Preservation to Aggressive Value Creation
Yes, family offices still care about wealth preservation. But the new generation is more comfortable with risk—and wants to create something.
Many are hiring seasoned pros to run real estate arms in-house. Others are launching discretionary funds to avoid syndication delays. At Kaufman, we’re doing both. We’ve built our internal team to handle origination, asset management, and capital structuring. And we’re exploring fund structures that give us discretion when speed and certainty matter most.
The old model of simply clipping coupons on core assets is fading. The new model? Creating value in messy, complex, often contrarian deals—because that’s where the upside lives.
🏗 CRE as a Core Allocation
For a growing number of family offices, real estate isn’t just a slice of the pie—it’s the anchor. Long-term cash flow, tax efficiency, inflation hedging, generational wealth transfer… name your goal, CRE can get you there.
At Kaufman, real estate is central to our strategy not just because it works financially, but because we live and breathe the business. It’s our DNA. Whether we’re backing a modular project with public-private incentives or offering structured debt to a proven operator, we’re building durable value—one asset, one partner, one bet at a time.
🔮 What Comes Next?
Expect more family offices to enter the real estate conversation—and to do so with teeth. As institutions hesitate, family offices will fill the gap, especially in:
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Private credit and transitional debt
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Ground-up development in niche asset classes
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Distressed debt and recapitalizations
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Adaptive reuse and public-private partnerships
The capital is there. The appetite is growing. And the constraints are few.
We’re already in motion. If you’re looking to co-invest, recapitalize, or bring a special situation to the table, let’s talk.
Because the next chapter of CRE won’t be led by institutions—it’ll be written by the families who know how to move fast, think long, and bet bold.
Daniel Kaufman
President, Kaufman Development
Real Estate Investor | Builder | Strategist