The new firm is the brainchild of Doug Shelley, a former senior transaction officer in Lend Lease's Capital Markets Group in New York. During his tenure there, Shelley completed transactions worth more than $2 billion for such major pension fund and REIT investors as the State of Michigan, Delta Airlines, the Denver Public Schools, Arch Street Funds, Global Property Fund, Raytheon and Simon Property Group.

Summit Capital Partners "provides advisory services for private developers and institutions nationally, with an emphasis on senior and mezzanine debt placements and joint venture equity," according to Shelley. He notes that his firm's current advisory assignments include the construction and permanent financing of a 156-room Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Paramus, NJ, and the financing of a new sports arena in Trenton.