What it is
Preferred equity sits between the senior loan and the sponsor's common equity. It is repaid before common equity and after the senior lender, and in exchange for that position it carries a defined return and a defined set of rights.
Its close cousin is mezzanine financing, which occupies similar ground in the stack but is documented as debt secured by an ownership interest rather than as an equity position. Which one fits depends on what the senior lender permits, how the ownership entity is structured, and what the sponsor is trying to protect. We work in both.
When to use it
Preferred equity is a precision instrument. It earns its cost when the alternative is a smaller deal, a diluted position, or no deal at all.
- Senior proceeds came in below what the capitalization requires and the gap needs filling.
- You want to preserve common-equity ownership rather than sell a larger share of the deal.
- A development or repositioning needs additional capital to reach completion or stabilization.
- A recapitalization needs to take out a partner or retire an existing position.
- You are pursuing several projects at once and want to spread sponsor equity across more of them.
How Ordeg structures and places it
The economics of preferred equity get most of the attention. The control provisions decide whether a sponsor still runs their own asset, and that is where we focus.
We work through the terms that actually govern the relationship: what triggers a change of control, what approval rights attach to major decisions, how the position is repaid and on what schedule, how a capital event flows, what happens if the business plan slips, and how the position stacks against the senior lender's intercreditor requirements. Then we build the stack so the senior loan and the preferred piece are compatible before either goes to committee — not after, when repapering costs weeks.
Because equity is a different regulatory animal than debt, we keep public discussion of it general and handle specific structures privately, under engagement, with counsel involved where appropriate.
Who it's for
Sponsors and developers with a live South Florida project, a credible business plan, and a real gap between the senior proceeds and the total capitalization.
This is also where cross-border sponsors most often need a partner who can translate more than language. Investors from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina placing capital into Miami-Dade and Broward frequently structure through entities and ownership arrangements that a domestic capital partner will want walked through carefully. We do that work in English and Spanish, and we do it before the deal goes out rather than in the middle of diligence.