Polestar Realty specializes in commercial real estate debt, equity, & 1031 transactions.
Polestar Realty advises on complex real estate investments, specializing in capital raising and off-market transactions. The firm’s debt and equity allocation sources include private and institutional investors, pension funds, private equity, insurance companies, banks, bridge lenders, family offices, and high net worth investors.
Benjamin Polen advises property owners and investors on complex real estate investments, specializing in debt and equity capital structuring. He has published research on REITs and CMBS and is quoted by the media as an expert on real estate capital markets.
Mr. Polen earned a Honors MBA in Real Estate and Finance at Baruch College, City University of New York. At Baruch, he served as president of the Graduate Real Estate Club. He holds a BA in English from the State University of New York at Albany, where he served as the Executive Editor of the Albany Student Press. He is a supporter of the UJA-Federation of NY, 17 Lex Society at Baruch College, Robin Hood Foundation, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Mr. Polen’s contributions to real estate have been recognized in the following ways:
Quoted by Bloomberg News on the Empire State Building REIT IPO.
Served as a Senior Research Associate at the Newman Real Estate Institute, Baruch College, City University of New York where he wrote original research on real estate capital markets and New York Office REITS. In addition, he conducted research into topics such as New York City’s affordable housing market, energy efficiency retrofits, and the economic redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.
Research on CMBS (Discovering Distressed Assets) cited by Wake Forest School of Law Professor Tanya D. Marsh in Too Big to Fail vs. Too Small to Notice: Addressing the Commercial Real Estate Debt Crisis published in the University of Alabama Law Review.
Guest lecturer to graduate students at Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Public Policy, on the topics of real estate development pro forma and real estate capital markets.
Quoted by SNL Financial as an expert on REIT investments in New York multifamily and office transactions.
