My Story

My Story

I grew up in a modest, low-income home in Little Havana, Miami, with my mother and three brothers. I attended Miami High School. At the time, college simply wasn't a realistic option for our family. My mother worked hard just to cover the household bills and raise four boys.

So I went to work.

At 17, I began working at a medical center. I didn't just want to do my job—I wanted to understand the entire business. I learned how it operated, how it was managed, and how everything worked from top to bottom.

While many people my age were going to parties and clubs, my routine was different. I was up at 4:30 in the morning and went to work until closing. That work ethic has stayed with me throughout my life.

At 18, I was expecting my first child. That changed everything for me. I wanted my daughter to have opportunities I didn't have. I remember thinking that I wanted her to grow up as the owner's kid.

So I opened my first company.

I have been self-employed ever since.

A Lifetime in Lending and Real Estate

My career eventually led me into mortgage lending, real estate and finance.

From approximately 2000 through 2008, I owned and operated Choice Mortgage Funding in South Florida. During those years, I was also a partner in East Coast Title & Trust Company, which gave me firsthand experience on both sides of the closing table—not only originating and funding transactions, but also understanding the title, settlement and closing process.

I later acquired Bankers Mortgage Corporation and operated the company with an S&L license until 2013.

After selling the S&L license, I decided to continue in commercial lending. Because of a non-compete restriction in Florida, I transferred operations to Atlanta, Georgia, under new branding.

During the following years, I continued lending while also investing directly in real estate and development projects. Among those investments was a 32-unit townhome development that was ultimately sold to a Mexican investor.

By 2017, I began considering a different type of investment.

In 2018, I started searching for country clubs and golf courses to acquire. It took approximately a year to find the first opportunity that made sense.

In 2019, we purchased our first club.

That eventually grew to ownership of five golf and country club properties in Georgia. We also managed an additional club in South Carolina under a purchase contract. After we had committed funds and resources to that transaction, new terms were presented, and we made the decision not to proceed with the acquisition.

Owning and operating these properties gave me experience that cannot be learned from a lending manual. I experienced specialty-use real estate as an owner, operator, borrower, investor and lender.

In 2024, we began selling the portfolio, including an investment that ultimately sold for approximately four times our original investment.

After leaving the golf business, I returned full-time to what I have spent most of my adult life doing: lending, investing and structuring real-estate transactions.

Today, through A&J Gulf Blvd Capital, I manage and operate private capital focused primarily on commercial real estate and specialty-use properties.

Why A&J Is Different

A&J is not built around shopping a borrower's loan to dozens of lenders.

When a transaction fits our lending criteria, we can deploy our own capital. When a transaction falls outside our direct-lending parameters, we work with select lending partners with whom we have established personal and professional relationships over many years.

We don't search the internet for a lender after receiving your application.

Our objective is to know where a transaction belongs before asking a borrower to spend time and money pursuing it.

That philosophy comes from decades of sitting on every side of a real-estate transaction—as a lender, borrower, investor, developer, property owner and operator, with experience extending into the title and closing process as well.

Transparency Comes First

After all these years in lending, I believe one thing causes more loans to fall apart than almost anything else: a lack of transparency.

That responsibility goes both ways.

If I tell a client that we will fund a transaction, I intend to fund it. At the same time, borrowers must be completely transparent with us from the beginning.

Tell your representative everything on day one—the good and the bad.

Don't hold something back hoping it won't be discovered during underwriting or due diligence. In most cases, the issue itself isn't what destroys a transaction. Discovering it unexpectedly after everyone has invested time and money is what creates the problem.

If we know the entire situation from the beginning, we can structure the transaction appropriately and work toward accomplishing what the borrower needs.

Still Moving Forward

My road has not been easy.

I have had failures as well as successes. I have made mistakes, learned from them, rebuilt and continued moving forward. Those experiences have shaped both the businessman and lender I am today.

I didn't begin with family money, a college education or a network of wealthy investors. I began by going to work.

More than three decades later, I'm still doing exactly that.

And through every success, failure and new beginning, I give thanks to God for allowing me to still be here, still building, and still doing what I have spent my adult life doing.

Away from business, I have been blessed to spend more than 20 years married to my soulmate, Adriana. When I'm not working, you'll usually find me spending time with her and our Doberman, Onyx.

After all these years, I've learned that success isn't only measured by the businesses you build or the deals you close. It's also measured by the people you come home to, the relationships you keep, and being grateful for what God has given you.