Matchmaker is always ahead of the game: Steve Kohn, NY President, SonnenBlick-Goldman.

Regardless of today's capital markets, which are rife with cheap debt and eager equity partners, the world of real estate finance is one that, perhaps now more than ever, requires a skilled master to negotiate its intricacies and plethora of opportunities.

Both investors and lenders alike turn to the real estate banking industry to help fashion what have become increasingly complicated capital structures and also to assist in choosing and arranging partnerships from an array of potential equity partners.

There are a number of prominent names in this realm of the real estate services business, but Steven Kohn, president of the New York offices of real estate banking firm Sonnenblick-Goldman, stands out as one of the most prolific and high profile matchmakers in Manhattan involved in arranging partnerships between real estate investors and both capital sources and equity partners.

Say an institutional investor wants to complete transactions abroad to take advantage of a new frontier of high cap rates but lacks an operational partner who is knowledgeable in foreign real estate markets. Or perhaps a smaller investor with an impressive track record of extracting value from domestic major market assets with puny cap rates needs a cash rich capital source to form a joint venture so as to have a chance at acquiring high priced assets.

Kohn has become a go-to broker for clients that fit into both categories, as well as many others who are looking to recruit partners to finance other tiers of the capital structure.

While the aforementioned deals with the equity side of investment, Kohn is no slouch in tapping the debt markets either.

The current climate of low but slowly rising interest rates has inspired many investors to be particularly creative in the manner in which they structure their leverage.

Investors eager to reap more attractive spreads have continued to take on short term floating rate debt in the face of rising rates, but hedge their exposure by securing caps on those rates and adding portions of fixed rate debt. With the consistent rise in value that the real estate market has experienced, others have felt comfortable taking interest-only loans to boost their yearly returns. Others still take on portions of costly mezzanine debt to supplement portions of the capital structure that can't be patched with cheaper loans or equity.

Whatever the structure of leverage, Kohn is proficient at tapping the right lenders to suit the evermore-sophisticated application of different varieties and tranches of debt that investors have been increasingly eager to utilize.

"I think that my knowledge of both the debt and equity markets is one of my signature attributes," Kohn said. "Having structured so many ventures over the years we have the expertise and experience to advise our clients on the many issues that arise. Our clients and the investors and lenders we deal with trust our advice and judgment and know how successful we are in procuring capital and forming strong partnerships."

Perhaps the most valuable prong of his skill set pertains to Ills Knowledge of the equity market.

Kohn has arranged a number of Manhattan joint ventures that have made headlines over the past year, including last summer's joint venture between Paramount and Principal Global for the $425 million acquisition of 1540 Broadway. Soon after, he arranged a joint venture between consummate Manhattan operator L&L Acquisitions and institutional powerhouse GE Asset Management that successfully bagged 600 Third Avenue. He worked again with L&L Acquisitions in their recent recapitalization of Metropolitan Tower, in which L&L traded a partnership with Investcorp for one with Principal Real Estate Investors, a subsidiary of Principal Insurance of Iowa.

His ability to consistently structure partnerships such as these is a testament to the amount of connections he has in the industry.

"You have to know what kind of investment an investor is looking to make," Kohn said. "A quick hit deal is much different than a long term hold, there can be a totally different structure for each, so to arrange them you have to know who the players are and who the right player is to bring in on a deal."

Kohn has gained his impressive list of contacts and insight into the world of real estate finance through years of experience in different areas of the industry. He joined Sonnenblick-Goldman in 1996 as a principal and managing director and in 2000 became president of the firm's New York offices. Prior to his joining the firm he was vice president of Wexford Management LLC, a Greenwich based hedge fund where he was charged with running the firm's real estate business. Before Wexford, Kohn was president of Trafalgar House Real Estate, the U.S. commercial real estate development subsidiary of Trafalgar House, a multibillion dollar UK conglomerate.

Kohn gained one of his most powerful contacts while still in high school. Growing up in Philadelphia, he spent summers working for Lambert Pasta and Cheese, a spaghetti making operation run by the Lambert brothers, Henry and Benjamin. Henry has been successful in many prominent financial and real estate ventures and Benjamin, founder and president of Eastdil Realty, is considered one of the godfathers of real estate banking. After graduating college, Henry offered Kohn a fulltime position helping to run the pasta company but Kohn, who studied economics and political geography at Bucknell University, asked if he could partake in another one of Lambert's many businesses instead.

"Henry owned an insurance company called Reliance Insurance that had a real estate development arm," Kohn said. "So I asked Henry if I could work there and he gave me a position there in 1981. That was my first real estate job."

Real estate wasn't a random choice for Kohn. His father was one of the three founders of the legendary architecture firm Kohn, Pederson and Fox, which has designed some of Manhattan's most well known buildings.

"My father was always talking about buildings and pointing out what he thought were great designs," Kohn said. "Much of our family conversation was about real estate, which is what pointed me towards the industry in the first place."