Testimonials

We take great pride in our reputation and the reflection it casts on our clients.

Sunder Jambunathan

Principal | Certes Partners

"Working with Lotus is unique. Before even starting our process, Faisal and his team personally toured the asset. They came to know the property, the neighborhood, and the sponsorship. Only then did they begin. Faisal, Vita, and their team take a rifle-shot approach: tailored, targeted outreach to select partners. Rather than sifting through a matrix, we discussed fit based on certainty of execution, economics, and the decades of mutual trust that Lotus has with lenders and that lenders have with Lotus. Our transaction achieved full proceeds, closed smoothly, and the Lotus team was involved, shepherding the process and aiding in negotiations right until the end. Highly recommended."

Amit Sripathi

Head of M&A and Strategic Development, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

"Faisal stands out for his exceptional intellect coupled with a deep understanding of complex financing structures. Faisal hands-on approach was essential to the successful outcome of deal he advised us on; he personally oversaw all key aspects of the deal, ensuring a level of attention to detail that is second to none. His dedication to delivering high-quality results is unmatched, making him a trusted advisor and advocate for his clients."

John Bardis

Chairman and CEO | ShareMD

"Faisal is one of those rare individuals who has top 1 percent capability across a broad and disciplined skill set. His intellect and analytic understanding of complex finance are clarion. Moreover, his personality and deep EIQ skill set enables him to assess how to get people and process to merge into the slipstream of progress as well as hard outcomes. In my past 40 years Faisal is, without question, one of the most broadly talented and effective business leaders I have worked with."

Cory Perlstein

Head of US Real Estate – Sculptor (formerly Och-Ziff)

"When Faisal has an opportunity, we are excited to listen. He maintains a rare balance of i) taking on interesting and complicated, yet executable projects, with high quality counterparties, ii) understanding the best calls to make in order to get those projects done and iii) acting constructively and commercially in problem solving along the way. Faisal is a pleasure to both work with and bounce ideas off of."

Warren de Haan

Managing Partner and CEO | Acore Capital

"His clients are lucky to have him as their advocate. When he talks, we listen. We have closed over $1 billion of transactions together and look forward to the next $1 billion. Best investment banker in the business hands down."

Ophir Sternberg

Founder & CEO | Lionheart Capital

"Faisal probably has the best calls into Wall Street corner offices as anyone we have encountered in the business. He is widely respected by the street. As a client, we gain from that. The other thing we continue to appreciate from Lotus is the hands-on boutique banking approach they provide. There is no handing the deal off to others; while several team members maintain their roles, Faisal personally leads all key aspects of the deals. In our experience that has made a significant difference to execution results."

David Forti

Dechert LLP

"While some people shy away from complicated transactions, Faisal embraces and understands them. He has the ability to understand the practical realities of any transaction and engineer solutions that create true win-win situations for all involved."

Jerry Tang

Head of CMBS, Natixis

"Faisal brings to real estate advisory the formidable experience of having headed a successful CMBS business. His clients gain a unique advantage from his capital markets mentality and deal structuring expertise."

Edmund Taylor

Former Global COO Credit Suisse Real Estate

"In the years before the Great Financial Crisis we had the good fortune of running a Top 3 ranked global real estate business with over 400 professionals across three continents. During that time, I witnessed Faisal evolve from a young analyst into the successful investment banker he became, and now further mature into a principal business owner. Looking back 20 plus years, I can tell you what this young man accomplished for us was inspirational. A sight to see. His ability to understand problems big and small, see their solutions clearly, communicate his lucid ideas, secure the buy-in of his peers, and then solve those problems was a process to experience. In that regard Faisal was peerless. I very highly recommend Faisal Ashraf as the absolute best-in-class consigliere to those seeking top notch advisory."

Richard Mack

Co-Founder, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies

"Faisal has worked extensively on the lending side himself, and I think he understood our perspective as a private lender in terms of what was required to make the deal go."

Mark Gensheimer

Founder & President | Penn-Florida Companies

"It became apparent to us that Faisal has some of the strongest corner-office relationships in the business. We like to borrow money on a top-down basis. We like to deal with principals, and Faisal was able to connect us with people that gave us a great comfort level"

Jeff Dimodica

President | Starwood Property Trust, Parent Company of LNR

"When Faisal brings something to us, it's something that he knows fits because he has been on our side and he understands what works and what doesn't. None of us have enough time in our days... Any advisor who can reduce that amount of time and refocus you to things where your hit rate is higher is a valuable advisor to us."

Brian Sedrish

Managing Director | Related Fund Management

"He serves, in my mind, as a consigliere to the groups that he works with. He's very selective in the assignments he takes and doesn't chase high volume. That way, he can give personalized attention to each of these clients... To me, from a client perspective, he is the easy choice when you get to understand the breadth of solutions that he offers."

Diego Lowenstein

CEO | Lionstone

“Faisal and his team at Lotus were able to secure multiple and untraditional sources of debt for our Virgin Chicago hotel in what was a very difficult lending environment. They engineered a well thought out and innovative plan with continuous dialogue and feedback for our team that led to a successful outcome. Lotus is our “go to” capital structuring team and particularly when there is uncertainty in the markets or the transaction has a higher degree of complexity"

Karim Alibhai

Founder & Principal | Gencom Group

“Our experience in working with Lotus Capital Partners on this transaction was second to none. The team at Lotus is among the best in the business at executing complex capital structures and we greatly valued the firm’s creativity, dedication, and professionalism throughout this process.”

Rohit Srivastava

Managing Director | Capital Markets & Treasury - Brookfield Asset Management

“Lotus Capital breaks boundaries of conventional wisdom to think of solutions which are outside the box. When it come real estate finance and debt capital markets they come up with some of the most creative and innovative solutions for complex situations. Power house of knowledge."

Scott Douglass

Co-Founding Partner & Co-CIO | Prime Finance

With his decades of banking and investing experience, Faisal has some of the best direct calls in the lending industry to get his deals immediate attention. Faisal and I have worked on transactions together for over 20 years, so when he reaches out about something, while it may be complicated, I know there is thought and substance behind it and that he would not waste our time. He and Lotus Capital are tremendous partners for complex deals.

Arvind Pai

Managing Director | Head of Real Estate Underwriting and Portfolio Management - Natixis

"Faisal and his team will focus unwaveringly on a transaction till he achieves a successful execution. He has the unique ability to understand challenges in complex transactions and develop structures that suitably bridge the asks between lenders and borrowers"

Zain Koita

Managing Partner Knickpoint Ventures

"Faisal was integral in closing our deal. His deep relationships of corner office executives, who trust his acumen and messaging, allowed us to have a competitive and successful process in a highly turbulent market. Perhaps what was most notable was his candor in anticipating "where the puck is going" instead of chasing past realities. It gave us the confidence to move ahead quickly and implement clever, mutually beneficial, changes to the business plan that will enable a successful outcome for us, our investors, and lender. We look forward to doing many more things with Lotus in the future.”"