<SEC-DOCUMENT>0001628280-24-013646.txt : 20240503
<SEC-HEADER>0001628280-24-013646.hdr.sgml : 20240503
<ACCEPTANCE-DATETIME>20240328165507
<PRIVATE-TO-PUBLIC>
ACCESSION NUMBER:		0001628280-24-013646
CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE:	CORRESP
PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT:		1
FILED AS OF DATE:		20240328

FILER:

	COMPANY DATA:	
		COMPANY CONFORMED NAME:			ARBOR REALTY TRUST INC
		CENTRAL INDEX KEY:			0001253986
		STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION:	REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS [6798]
		ORGANIZATION NAME:           	05 Real Estate & Construction
		IRS NUMBER:				200057959
		STATE OF INCORPORATION:			MD
		FISCAL YEAR END:			1231

	FILING VALUES:
		FORM TYPE:		CORRESP

	BUSINESS ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		333 EARLE OVINGTON BOULEVARD
		STREET 2:		SUITE 900
		CITY:			UNIONDALE
		STATE:			NY
		ZIP:			11553
		BUSINESS PHONE:		516-506-4200

	MAIL ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		333 EARLE OVINGTON BLVD STE.900
		CITY:			UNIONDALE
		STATE:			NY
		ZIP:			11553
</SEC-HEADER>
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>CORRESP
<SEQUENCE>1
<FILENAME>filename1.htm
<TEXT>
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<title>Document</title></head><body><div id="i50d3a363f9df4d6bab8e91429adb1dbc_41"></div><div style="min-height:72pt;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div></div><div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">ARBOR REALTY TRUST, INC.</font></div><div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">333 Earle Ovington Boulevard, Suite 900</font></div><div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Uniondale, New York 11553</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">March 28, 2024</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Mr. Eric McPhee</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Mr. Isaac Esquivel</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Division of Corporation Finance, Office of Real Estate &#38; Construction</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">100 F Street, N.E.</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Washington, D.C. 20549</font></div><div style="text-indent:36pt"><font><br></font></div><div style="text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Re&#58;  Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. </font></div><div style="text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023</font></div><div style="text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">File No. 001-32136</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Dear Mr. McPhee&#58;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">On behalf of Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (the &#8220;Company&#8221;), I submit this letter in response to the comment from the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the &#8220;Staff&#8221;) received by letter, dated March 22, 2024, relating to the Company&#8217;s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, that was filed on February 20, 2024 (the &#8220;Form 10-K&#8221;). To facilitate review, we have reproduced your comment in bold.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 </font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Operations, page 33</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt;padding-left:36.7pt;text-indent:-18pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">1.</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%;padding-left:9pt">We note your discussion in your fourth quarter earnings call of your strategy of refinancing loans off your balance sheet through your capital-light agency business, and that you are continuing to focus on working through your loan book and converting your multifamily bridge loans into agency product. You also noted that when you do a bridge loan, it's clearly for the sole purpose of creating an agency loan. Please tell us what consideration you have given to discussing this strategy in detail in your periodic filings.</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Company Response&#58;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">The Company gives thoughtful consideration to describing its business and strategies in its periodic filings with the SEC. In our most recent filing, the Form 10-K, the Company disclosed its strategy of converting its multifamily bridge loans into agency&#47;GSE loans in multiple locations. Within Item 1. Business, the Company included the following relative disclosures&#58;</font></div><div style="height:72pt;position:relative;width:100%"><div style="bottom:0;position:absolute;width:100%"><div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">1</font></div><div><font><br></font></div></div></div><hr style="page-break-after:always"><div style="min-height:72pt;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div></div><div style="margin-top:9pt;padding-left:18pt;text-indent:-18pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">&#8226;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;padding-left:13.8pt">Business Objectives and Strategy section (page 2) &#8211; &#8220;In our Structured Business, our primary focus is on&#8230;growing our loan portfolio which also provides a pipeline to growth in our Agency&#47;GSE servicing portfolio.&#8221;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt;padding-left:18pt;text-indent:-18pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">&#8226;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;padding-left:13.8pt">Investment Strategy section, paragraph titled Use Our Relationships with Existing Borrowers (page 3) &#8211; &#8220;Through the expertise of our originators, we offer a wide range of customized financing solutions and benefit from our existing customer base by using existing business to create potential refinancing opportunities.&#8221;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt;padding-left:18pt;text-indent:-18pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">&#8226;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;padding-left:13.8pt">Our Primary Targeted Investments section, second paragraph under title Bridge Financing (page 3) &#8211; &#8220;Borrowers typically use the proceeds of a conventional mortgage, such as our GSE&#47;agency loans, to repay a bridge loan.&#8221;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Within Item 7. Management&#8217;s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, Significant Developments During 2023 section, the paragraph titled Agency Business Activity (page 34), the Company included the following statistical disclosure related to its strategy to convert multifamily bridge loans into agency product &#8211; &#8220;Loan originations increased 7% to $5.11 billion, and includes $1.69 billion of new agency loans that were recaptured from our Structured Business runoff.&#8221;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">In its future filings, beginning with its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, which the Company currently expects to file on or about May 3, 2024, the Company will further clarify its business strategy related to converting multifamily bridge loans into agency loans by including the following disclosure in its Management&#8217;s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations disclosures.</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">&#8220;One of our core business strategies is to generate additional agency lending opportunities by refinancing our multifamily balance sheet bridge loan portfolio when it is practical and appropriate to do so. We execute this strategy by underwriting the multifamily bridge loans we originate to a potential future agency financing. We then continue to work with our borrowers on this execution through the life cycle of the multifamily bridge loan.  When effective, this strategy allows us to recapture refinancing opportunities, delever our balance sheet, and generate additional income streams through our capital-light agency business.&#8221;</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">In connection with this response, the Company acknowledges that the Company is responsible for the accuracy and adequacy of its disclosures, notwithstanding any review, comments, action or absence of action by the Staff.</font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Should the Staff have any additional questions, please contact me at (516) 506-4422.  </font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font><br></font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Sincerely, </font></div><div style="margin-top:9pt"><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">&#47;s&#47; Paul Elenio</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Paul Elenio</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Chief Financial Officer</font></div><div style="height:72pt;position:relative;width:100%"><div style="bottom:0;position:absolute;width:100%"><div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">2</font></div><div><font><br></font></div></div></div></body></html>
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