One North Equities is a real estate advisory firm focused on commercial real estate investments and finance. We also provide residential brokerage to close relationships. Our primary work involves sourcing financing for commercial owners. One North Equities was formed in 2007 to provide consulting and brokerage services to a wide variety of real estate investors. The firm is owned by Paul Melkus.
Mr. Melkus is a real estate veteran with broad experience in investment analysis, deal structuring, capital raising, syndications, and asset management. He has extensive expertise in capital markets transactions that include launching a high-yield debt investment platform, evaluating investment strategies, providing advisory services related to structured capital solutions for institutional real estate investors, and advising owners on asset management programs and work-outs. He has worked on all real estate asset types and executed transactions in the billions of dollars globally.
Currently, Mr. Melkus servers on the Board of Directors for a private Real Estate Investment Trust as financial expert and Chairs the Audit Committee in that capacity. He is a member of the firm’s compensation committee.
Mr. Melkus served as Global Head of Capital Markets and Executive Committee Member for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority – one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. The Global Head of Capital Markets reports to the Chief Financial Officer and has worked within the teams’ transaction management, insurance, and cash management functions. As an Executive Committee member, Mr. Melkus has responsibility for identifying risk associated with financings, guarantees, and interest rates in addition to airing risks associated with partners, structures, and markets. Suitability of returns and portfolio fit are other areas of consideration. While at ADIA, Mr. Melkus has executed financing transactions in the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, and China. He has recently completed his services for ADIA and returned to the United States.
Prior to ADIA, Mr. Melkus was responsible for all aspects of finance-related transactions for institutional investment advisory clients of RREEF – a Deutsche Bank real estate investment management firm with over $35B of asset under management. Transactions included joint ventures, preferred equity, private bond offerings, revolving credit facilities, subscription lines, and a large number of secured debt transactions for core and value-added real estate investments totaling over $3B in proceeds. Mr. Melkus was also responsible for a wide range of hedging strategies for his clients.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Melkus created, ran and profitably exited a high-yield debt investment platform for GE Capital. Investments included CMBS and ABS totaling over $1 billion. Mr. Melkus’ investment platforms established a diversified, efficient profit center. While with Heller Financial, he raised capital for a mezzanine debt fund and established a program to invest in various real estate private equity platforms.
He has also consulted at Ernst & Young on a variety of capital markets and real estate related transactions. Representative transactions include establishing and supervising due diligence programs for investors and leading a client’s initial public offering.
Prior to graduate school, Mr. Melkus represented high net worth clients at Northern Trust as Real Estate Asset Manager, where his strong fiduciary orientation was instilled.
Mr. Melkus is a graduate of DePauw University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts majoring in Economics and Management. He earned his Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin’s Real Estate Investment and Urban Economics program.