Tom Traynor and James Millon

2020 was a difficult year to push debt deals over the finish line, and an almost impossible year to close large loans, but CBRE’s Tom Traynor and James Millon did just that. CBRE’s overall U.S. originations topped $43 billion last year, and the team led by Traynor and Millon closed 18 deals totaling more than $5 billion, averaging $279 million in deal size. The team has another $4.6 billion in signed term sheets or deals currently in the market. 

Notable deals executed by the pair during the COVID-19 pandemic included a $973-million construction loan in May 2020 for St. John’s Terminal, Oxford Properties and CPPIB’s 1.3- million-square-foot redevelopment of the historic train terminal in Manhattan’s Hudson Square; a $575-million construction loan in June 2020 for WS Development and PSP Investments’ Seaport Labs life sciences project in Boston’s Seaport District, $250 million of which was syndicated to a foreign bank post-closing; and a $740-million CMBS loan for KKR’s acquisition of 96 industrial properties—one of the first sizable, floating-rate, CMBS SASB executions post-COVID.

In addition to new originations, CBRE tackled refinancings, loan sales/UCCs, and several strategic discussions with clients, hosting roundtables, and leveraging CBRE’s global intel to assist clients with critical decisions. Millon and Traynor also leveraged their experience as former Deutsche Bank bankers to guide clients through the difficult time, using a lender’s mindset.

These are some of the reasons we selected Tom Traynor and James Millon for inclusion in our first-ever Top Mortgage brokers and Lenders Awards. These awards recognize industry professionals who have demonstrated the highest standards in commercial real estate finance.