Lockport Firm Is Behind The Scenes Of Some Of WNY's Largest Deals

Featured in Buffalo Business Journal

Thomas Grzebinski II's office is in Lockport, but he frequently travels up and

down the I-90 corridor to make real estate deals happen across Upstate New York.

He's a principal at Gantry and head of its local office. He says the firm is the

largest privately owned commercial mortgage banking firm in the United States,

with 22 principals including Grzebinski.

The firm connects property owners and developers with lenders — mostly life

insurance companies, but also banks, Wall Street funds and government-backed

entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Grzebinski described this as a win-win: Lenders rely on firms like Gantry to

develop a deep understanding of local markets to curate promising deals, while

borrowers gain access to a much broader pool of potential lenders than they'd

likely be able to curate themselves.

Grzebinski's team recently secured $48.3 million in loans to finance Lancasterbased

Pillar Real Estate's $66.5 million purchase of four apartment communities

in Blasdell, Hamburg and West Seneca, totaling 671 units.

Gantry has had a Western New York office since acquiring Rose Hill Group in

2019. The pandemic hit about six months after that acquisition closed, turning

the real estate world on its head.

That created challenges for Gantry, but it ultimately may have helped the bottom

line, at least for a bit. The firm originated a record $5.2 billion worth of loans

nationwide in 2021, boosted by rock-bottom interest rates.

Those numbers tapered as interest rates climbed, but business has remained

brisk. In 2025, the firm originated about $4.2 billion in loans.

Grzebinski said he expects the company to continue to do brisk business in the

years ahead.

Estimates vary, but experts say more than $1.1 trillion in commercial real estate

mortgages are expected to come due in 2026, and another $1.3 trillion in 2026,

according to S&P Global.

"The majority of the transactions that are happening are because the loans are

coming up for maturity, so the owner has to come up to the table with a check or

they have to sell the asset," Grzebinski said. "There's deals that need to get done."

This "maturity wall" means many property owners will be looking to either

refinance or sell — creating opportunities for mortgage bankers.

"We think that this is a great opportunity for the company to grow," Grzebinski

said.

Meanwhile, interest rates have come down a bit, making it easier to get deals to

the table.

Grzebinski said he expects to see Western New York continue development in the

multifamily, self-storage, retail and logistics spaces.

The region remains attractive to outside investors as a safe bet, with steady rents

and vacancy rates, Grzebinski said.

"Western New York is very stable and it's very not sexy," he said.

That stability has become increasingly attractive, and it's created new interest in

Western New York — creating more growth potential for Gantry.

"We're seeing new opportunities with new borrowers that we haven't seen here,"

Grzebinski said.