Christopher Kelly

Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending

Christopher T. Kelly is a Managing Director and Head of Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Lending at Amherst Capital Management.  In this role, Chris is responsible for all facets of Amherst Capital’s CRE middle-market lending business, targeting senior mortgage investments in all types of commercial and for-rent residential real estate assets.

A 28-year commercial real estate professional, Chris has extensive experience in real estate debt, mezzanine and equity markets. Prior to joining Amherst Capital, Chris was a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate at CapitalSource, a division of Pacific Western Bank, responsible for all facets of the national real estate lending business. Previously, he was a Managing Director and founding member of Natixis (formerly known as CDC Mortgage Capital), responsible for the origination of senior and mezzanine loans. Prior to this, Chris was with Lehman Brothers where he originated interim and permanent debt for the Fixed Income Group.

Chris spent more than eight years at Heller Financial in the real estate division, where he was involved in the origination of a wide array of senior and mezzanine debt for all types of commercial real estate. Additional roles during his tenure at Heller included the origination of equity investments in single family and multi-family developments, and construction asset management for several high profile New York City commercial and mixed-use developments.

Chris frequently speaks at industry conferences and events, including: Urban Land Institute, CREFC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York University, IMN, WREAA, CBRE Institutional Investors, AmeriCatalyst and Massey Knakal.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of various real estate organizations including CREFC, ULI, ICSC and WREAA. He is a former board member for the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association.