In this new series, we ask industry leaders in the CRE market how they entered the business and what they have learned along the way.
Cory Jubran is a senior director at Nuveen Green Capital, a leading provider of sustainable financing solutions for CRE. He leads the firm’s C‑PACE origination efforts across the West Coast, overseeing the sourcing, underwriting, closing and monitoring of transactions for multifamily, office, industrial, retail and hospitality. Jubran has expertise in investments, lending, structured finance and real estate, with approximately $7B in direct transaction experience. He will be a speaker at The Crittenden Report Finance Conference in May.
How did you get your start in CRE finance?
I got my start as an analyst in the CRE group at OneWest Bank. A mentor of mine was a VP there, and as the platform was growing quickly, they were looking to hire their first analyst. It was a unique seat because OneWest was early in the post-GFC recovery in bridge lending from roughly 2012 to 2015, so I got hands-on exposure to real-time underwriting, structuring and asset-level problem solving. The team was made up of seasoned real estate and private equity professionals from firms like Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Colony Capital, and learning in that environment gave me a strong technical foundation and a clear understanding of how capital markets, real estate fundamentals and execution risk intersect.
What do you enjoy most about working in this business?
The tangible nature of the work. A lot of finance lives on a spreadsheet, but in CRE, you can literally drive through a city and point to projects you helped capitalize or reposition. Being able to connect the work to real places and outcomes — and to see how assets impact neighborhoods, tenants and communities — is very rewarding.
What is the best advice you have received in your career?
“Always raise your hand.” Taking on work that is a bit outside your comfort zone is how you accelerate learning, build credibility and expand your responsibilities. It is also how you become the person teams rely on when something is complicated or time-sensitive, and that has been a meaningful driver of growth in my career.
What types of deals are you focused on right now?
I focus on growing C-PACE as a mainstream part of the CRE capital stack. Nuveen Green Capital is a leading C-PACE provider nationally, and my role has been centered on expanding the platform and helping sponsors use C-PACE strategically, not just opportunistically. Today, that includes C-PACE for new construction, major renovations and retrofits and post-construction recapitalizations where a project is complete but needs additional runway to stabilize. In many cases, C-PACE can complement senior debt and reduce reliance on higher-cost bridge, mezzanine or preferred equity, while providing long-duration, fixed-rate capital.
What trends are you seeing in the market today?
I am seeing renewed interest in assets that create experiences and bring people together, particularly in well-located office and retail. The market is still highly selective, but there is clearer differentiation between commodity space and assets that have quality, identity and a strong leasing story. More broadly, sponsors are prioritizing capital stack durability, and you see that in the increased focus on longer-term financing, fixed-rate certainty and recapitalizations that right-size leverage rather than simply extend it.
What are you watching most closely in the year ahead?
I am watching three things closely: the volume of maturities and recapitalizations coming due, the path of interest rates and credit spreads and how quickly leasing fundamentals normalize across property types. A large cohort of assets financed during the low-rate period is still working through refinancing and transition risk, so execution certainty and cost of capital will matter as much as valuation. I am also paying close attention to where liquidity re-enters first, which I expect to be in well-located, institutional-quality assets with clear business plans. In that environment, financing tools that provide long-duration capital and flexibility, including C-PACE, should remain increasingly relevant.
