Nuveen Green Capital, a provider of sustainable commercial real estate financing solutions, announced that Christopher Lawton, a veteran of commercial real estate finance, has joined the firm as Head of Originations.
Lawton will play a pivotal role in leading NGC’s origination and growth strategies, and will report to Jessica Bailey, President and CEO of Nuveen Green Capital.
Lawton brings more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate structured finance, most recently having spent eight years at Bank OZK (formerly Bank of the Ozarks), where he was Managing Director of Northeast Originations for the bank’s Real Estate Specialties Group in New York City. In his time with Bank OZK, Mr. Lawton closed over $8 billion of construction and bridge facilities, formed the bank’s life-science lending program, and built the bank’s loan portfolio in Boston and Philadelphia.
Before joining Bank OZK, Lawton was a Director in the New York office of Frankfurt, Germany-based DekaBank, where, in 2009, he helped establish the bank’s first U.S. office. From 2004 to 2009, Lawton was with Hypo Real Estate Capital where he originated, structured, and closed over $4 billion of senior and mezzanine commercial real estate financings.
Lawton began his real estate career in 2003 as an Analyst with CBRE Capital Markets. He graduated with a B.S in Business from Miami University and an M.S. in Real Estate from New York University.
