Personnel

Hunt Mortgage Group Expands Seniors Housing and Healthcare Lending Platform With Several Key Hires

March 7, 2018

NEW YORK–Hunt Mortgage Group, a leader in financing commercial real estate throughout the United States, announced today it has expanded its seniors housing and healthcare lending platform with the addition of a dedicated unit focused on the industry and the hiring of several key executives. Kathryn Burton Gray followed the new team who preceded her in joining Hunt Mortgage Group from Red Capital Group. She will lead the new group as senior managing director and head of the business.

“Kathryn brings extensive experience in the healthcare and seniors housing industries and will lead our efforts to become a prominent provider of financing in this space,” noted Jim Flynn, president and chief investment officer at Hunt Mortgage Group. “The addition of a dedicated unit focused exclusively on seniors housing and healthcare, in conjunction with our existing FHA production team, positions us well to make tremendous headway in this sector.”

The new team will target expansion into the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac senior space, and Hunt Mortgage Group will now offer bridge loan solutions to clients in the sector through its Proprietary Lending platform.

Burton Gray will be based in Irvine, CA, and will report to Flynn. She will be responsible for overseeing Hunt Mortgage Group’s financing and private placement activities in the seniors housing and healthcare sector. A well-known industry leader, she has expertise in financing independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and continuing care retirement communities (CCRC). She has more than 34 years of banking experience with large commercial banking platforms, and has held senior leadership positions at Wells Fargo Bank, a number of smaller regional and community banks, CIT Group, GE, Finova Capital, and most recently Red Capital Group/ORIX —where she led the national Senior Living and Healthcare real estate platform in the Commercial Finance Division.

Burton Gray serves on the Foundation Board of Mission Hospital, a St. Joseph’s Hospital subsidiary and has participated on many other industry specific boards including Executive Board positions with ASHA (American Senior Housing Association), and ULI’s Seniors Housing council (Urban Land Institute). Her past board memberships have included HCap, LTC 100, CALA, ALFA-Argentum, and the NIC Advisory Committee.

“This new team has a renowned reputation in the industry, and we are delighted to announce they have joined the Hunt Mortgage Group team,” added Flynn. “As part of this expansion, we anticipate adding additional sales analyst, credit, underwriting and asset management personnel in the near future and look forward to the growth of this business unit.”

Burton Gray’s new production team will include:

  • James Scribner has joined the firm as a managing director. He has 14 years of experience in seniors housing finance and has worked for nearly 20 years in financial services. His experience includes work in direct agency, FHA, and balance sheet originations. Throughout his career he has provided investment banking/advisory including: arranging first mortgage debt, mezzanine debt and equity, and sell-side advisory and restructuring. Scribner will be based in Connecticut. Prior to joining Hunt Mortgage Group, he was managing director at Red Capital Group for six years. He began his career in seniors housing and healthcare with Herbert J. Sims & Co., a boutique investment bank.
  • Jason Smeck has joined the firm as a managing director and will be based in Columbus, OH. He has over 20 years of experience in commercial real estate lending, with the past sixteen specifically focused on seniors housing and healthcare finance. Prior to joining Hunt Mortgage Group, Jason was a managing director for Red Capital Group, focused on the development of the seniors housing and healthcare platform and serving in a variety of capacities ranging from analysis, structuring and underwriting, and originations. Smeck’s specific area of expertise is the FHA Lean program, about which he has presented on a number of national panels and interviews over the past ten years. In his tenure at Red he successfully structured over $1 billion of direct FHA, Fannie Mae and Bridge Loan transactions.
  • Brady Johnson has been named director and will be based in Irvine, CA, with a particular focus on the Western U.S. With over 10 years of experience in commercial finance, Johnson also joins Hunt Mortgage Group from Red Capital Group where he was focused on commercial real estate lending for seniors housing properties including direct agency, balance sheet and construction lending. Prior to joining Red, he spent a good part of his career with GE Capital in various commercial roles, including GE’s Corporate Finance business and GE Real Estate. He is a graduate of GE’s premier Experienced Commercial Leadership Program.

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