Meet Our Team

Neil D. Freeman Biography

Experience:

Neil D. Freeman is Chairman and CEO of Aries Capital, LLC, a full-service real estate lender and mortgage banking firm offering long-term, interim and mezzanine loans. Mr. Freeman is also President of Urban Development Fund, LLC, a New Market Tax Credit CDE. Throughout his 25-year career in the finance and real estate ownership industries, he has funded more than $3 billion in commercial and multifamily properties. Mr. Freeman’s entities have also held equity interests in real estate worth more than $250 million, including apartments, hotels, shopping centers and land developments.

Urban Development Fund has received approximately $400 million in federal and state New Markets Tax Credit allocation, translating to $1 billion in transactions. UDF financings have focused on extra distress census tracts throughout the United States. UDF has funded multiple property types, including hotels, mixed use properties, retail developments, theaters, hospitals, and medical facilities.

Andrea Riegsecker Biography

Experience:

Andrea Riegsecker is an accomplished finance executive who serves as Executive Vice President of Aries Capital. Andrea  joined Aries Capital in 2004 and has extensive experience in commercial real estate financing for all types of commercial properties, including multi-family, office, retail, industrial, hotel, and senior and assisted living facilities. As Executive Vice President, she executes due diligence evaluations of borrowers, properties, and markets, acts as a loan structure advisor to clients and loan committee, and manages loan closings.  Andrea also serves as Chief Financial Officer for Aries Real Estate Fund, the mezzanine and equity lending arm of Aries Capital.

Andrea is skilled in financial analysis, lending, loan processing, underwriting, regulatory compliance, and market research and analysis. As Assistant Vice President at Berkshire Mortgage Finance Corporation, she served as Chief Underwriter for FHA multi-family programs nationwide and regional underwriter for Fannie Mae DUS and Conduit, as well as Tax Exempt and Mezzanine Loan Programs.

Previously, she was a Loan Analyst at Mesirow Financial, where she oversaw application packages and processed transactions through commitment for HUD, and acted as Regional Underwriter for Conduit and FHA programs as exclusive regional correspondent firm to Continental Wingate Company loan programs.

Andrea has also been a consultant providing feasibility advice in aspects of senior housing development and financing to non-profit groups nationwide.

Jeffrey G. Bucaro Biography

Experience:

Jeffrey G. Bucaro joined Aries Capital in 2006, and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Business Development. He brings 24 years of financial services expertise with a broad array of experience including product development and management, capital raising, fee income generation, and commercial real estate finance within world-class organizations, including the former First National Bank of Chicago (now JP Morgan Chase) and ABN-AMRO North America (now Bank of America).

Jeffrey’s current responsibilities include originating, underwriting, and financing commercial real estate assets. He has evaluated over $2 billion in financing opportunities across all property types including land, hotels, apartment buildings, retail centers, and office and industrial properties, and has successfully closed individual transactions ranging from $5 million to over $100 million.

Jeffrey has experience structuring transactions at all levels of the capital stack, including senior mortgages, A/B structures, mezzanine debt, joint-venture equity, and fund-level equity investments. He is also responsible for establishing correspondent relationships with a wide range of capital sources, including investment banks, hedge funds, life companies, commercial banks, credit unions, and private money funds.

Leonard Smith Biography

Experience:

Leonard Smith is a real estate finance professional with over 35 years of experience in all phases of the financing, sales, construction and management of commercial properties. Previously, he was Vice President at Spark Financial Group, where he originated and structured financing for commercial, hospitality and multi-family residential real estate projects.

Leonard developed his extensive expertise in hotel development and hospitality management as a Vice President at Hospitality Franchise Systems, the world’s largest hotel franchiser.  Additionally, Leonard founded Greystone Hospitality Resource and was Managing Partner of the Union Station Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Leonard has also acted as financier and developer of over 4,000 single and multifamily residential units and several hotels, restaurants, offices, retail centers and industrial properties nationwide.

Eric Jones Biography

Experience:

Eric Jones has a decade of experience in real estate sales and finance, operations management and client relations management, and is responsible for loan originations and underwriting for Aries Capital clients nationwide. He has been involved in over $320 million in loan originations across all property types since joining the firm in 2002.

Eric was previously an Assistant Vice President at Aries Capital. In that role, he cultivated new client relationships and originated loans in excess of $100 million. Eric honed his underwriting skills as Senior Loan Analyst and Underwriter for Aries Capital, directing the complete underwriting responsibilities for Aries Capital’s Phoenix, Houston, Chicago and Denver offices.

He began his career with Aries Capital as a Loan Analyst, specializing in multifamily and commercial property analysis. Prior to joining Aries, Eric was a Real Estate Agent with Re/Max Achievers, involved in over $100 million in single family home sales transactions.

"After spending a year trying to locate a lender who understood the unique requirements of an affordable housing investment I was fortunate enough to meet Eric Jones of Aries Capital. Eric and the Aries team distinguished themselves through their ability to understand our needs and the potential of the underlying real estate. They were able to identify some attractive financing options for us and to help us choose the best possible transaction.  I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. Aries underpromised and overdelivered.” - Andrew Niewiarowski, President of Park, Inc.

Andrew Wilson Biography

Experience:

Andrew Wilson has a decade of diversified experience across the complete life-cycle of commercial real estate asset management and development, including entitlements and acquisitions, lending, leasing, and disposition. In addition to securing financing for commercial real estate owners and developers, he currently manages Aries Capital’s $40 million mezzanine lending affiliate, Aries Real Estate Fund and specializes in portfolio stabilization, distressed asset acquisition, and repositioning. He is also leading Aries Capital’s global expansion efforts as the head of leasing and brokerage operations in China, via our partnership with Lingang Logistics of the Yangtze Free Trade Port in Shanghai.

Andrew previously served as a Real Estate Development Director for General Growth Properties (GGP), where he worked with public and private sector entities to negotiate project entitlements, critical leases, sales tax sharing agreements, and the sale and packaging of land.  Andrew successfully completed the GGP management program, wherein he served rotational roles in the financial services, legal services, estimating, leasing, design, and asset management departments. Prior to that, he served as Real Estate Manager for national restaurant chain Potbelly Sandwich Works, leading the chain’s Midwestern site-selection
and expansion efforts.

In addition, Andrew managed the Verizon and AT&T accounts for Blu Croix Ltd., a full-service real estate consulting firm specializing in land use issues for commercial, industrial and telecommunications facilities.