Peter Mekras, President, Aztec Group

Invest: spoke with Peter Mekras, president of Aztec Group, about how a boutique capital markets firm competes in a crowded field by leaning into focus, fiduciary clarity, and relentless sourcing. “If you’re reading the papers and you’re reading the trade publications, you probably know what happened three years ago, not today,” Mekras said.

How would you describe the firm’s strategic vision, and how has it evolved in response to changes in the commercial real estate market, especially over the last year?

Over the last year, I’m not sure I can point to one single trend that explains everything because the market is always moving in multiple directions at once. But the broader story is how the industry has changed over time and what that has meant for a firm like ours.

Aztec was founded in 1981 in a different landscape. Real estate was still an emerging asset class, and boutique firms could serve both entrepreneurial clients and institutions at a high level. Over time, the market evolved toward much larger institutional and national platforms, and many institutional clients consolidated relationships with those providers.

That shift reshaped who our core clients are. Today, our business is centered on private investors and entrepreneurial groups who want a high-touch advisory relationship. These are clients we know well, often families we’ve worked with across generations. They view us as an outsourced extension of their business, not a transactional intermediary. More than half of our work is repeat business, driven by clients who believe the work adds value rather than relying on scale or brand alone.

Our strategic vision is to remain intensely focused on delivering outcomes for sophisticated clients who value depth, judgment, and execution.

What differentiates your approach to structuring complex financing and investment sales compared with other competitors in the space?

Real estate is an industry where information is everywhere, so almost everyone believes they’re an expert. But that often overlooks nuance and the fact that it’s difficult to generalize one execution against another.

Our differentiation is focus, measured in time and effort. When someone is borrowing money or selling a property, we may have four people working on that transaction, with a meaningful percentage of their time allocated to that deal. Many competitors operate with much thinner attention per transaction.

If you believe someone can spend a third of the time and achieve the same result, then you think differently than I do. We believe outcomes improve with intense effort and constant attention. That’s the product.

There are clients who want a toll booth, someone to simply execute a transaction. That’s not us. We work best with clients who believe the process itself creates value.

Across asset classes, where do you see the most opportunity or challenges ahead?

It’s impossible to predict the next few months, but historically, the greatest opportunity lies where others are not focused. A contrarian view often creates the most value.

Hospitality is a good example today. Certain segments of senior housing may also present opportunities. Office was deeply out of favor a few years ago, and some investors who leaned into that space are now closing deals that look attractive in hindsight.

Multifamily is more complex. Demand remains robust and capital availability is strong, but there’s a significant buy-seller gap and limited transactional activity. When transaction volume is low, pricing discovery becomes muddled, and that’s often where opportunity emerges.

Deals today take much longer to close. When a transaction becomes public, it may reflect pricing from six or seven months earlier. If you’re reading the papers and you’re reading the trade publications, you probably know what happened three years ago, not today. 

How do you maintain a fiduciary, boutique culture as deals become larger and more complex?

Bigger doesn’t necessarily make things harder. What makes things harder is joining the crowd.

For example, when we sell a property, we don’t handle the financing. That’s not the norm in our industry. Many firms layer services to scale fees, but we believe clarity matters. When we’re hired by a seller or borrower, that’s who we represent.

That doesn’t mean we act improperly toward the other side. It means our fiduciary responsibility is clear. We’re not trying to balance competing interests within the same transaction.

This mirrors what happened in investment management, where firms moved away from proprietary products because clients recognized conflicts of interest. Our culture is built around staying on the side of the transaction we were hired to represent.

How has Aztec adapted its capital sourcing strategies in the current environment?

By pleading ignorance. Twenty years ago, someone might have felt confident naming most capital sources in the market. Today, that mindset is dangerous. The world is large, and in markets like Miami and Florida, new capital is constantly entering.

Private equity firms that weren’t historically focused on real estate are now active. Banks consolidate. Platforms change. If you assume you know all the players, you’re not serving your client well.

We operate as if we know nothing, even though we know a lot. That means more work. Instead of making 15 calls, we might make 50. But that’s how you uncover the anomaly that creates value.

If a client wants us to call the 15 most active buyers everyone already knows, we may not be the right firm. If they want us to find the 100th they don’t know, that’s where we excel.

 What advice would you offer investors navigating today’s commercial real estate market?

Be mindful of what “normal” means. Many investors assume the current environment represents a stable baseline. But real estate relies heavily on leverage, and leverage can magnify risk when conditions change.

Interest rates are a good example. Many believe today’s rates are high. I don’t necessarily agree. Historically, current levels may be closer to normal. That means rates could stay the same or move higher.

People may be right that rates will come down, but preparing only for that outcome is risky. What gets you isn’t what you think you know. It’s what you think you know that you don’t know.

Leverage is powerful. It can amplify success, but it can also amplify mistakes if it’s not used carefully.