Signature Bank’s longtime head of commercial real estate lending, George Klett, is retiring, the bank announced Tuesday. Joseph Fingerman and John Zieran, who joined Signature 10 years ago, will take over the division.
Klett, a 67-year-old Air Force veteran, joined Signature in 2007 from Capital One and helped establish the bank as one of New York’s top commercial property lenders. But over the past year the bank, which has a heavy loan concentration in multifamily properties, suffered under a slowdown in that market, according to a recent report from data company CrediFi.
As fewer apartment buildings sold, Signature fell to the seventh spot in the ranking of NYC’s most active commercial real estate lenders in the second quarter, down from the top spot a year ago.
In September, the bank issued a $85 million loan to Meringoff Properties to refinance the office building 401 Park Avenue South.
As of Sept. 30, Signature held $23.6 billion in commercial real estate loans, including $14.8 billion in multifamily mortgages.