Executive Leadership
Don Nikols
Principal, Investor Relations
Don Nikols is a Principal with The Nikols Company and is responsible for aggregation of capital and investor relations. His three-decade real estate career spans institutional and private money lending, entrepreneurial real estate development and brokerage of all types of capital from loans to project equity.
Since 2005, his sole focus has been private money lending, closing over $150 million in loans, ranging from $25,000 to $12 million primarily in Southern California.
Don began his finance career in 1978 as a loan officer in the Newport Beach headquarters of The Alison Company, which was a commercial real estate lending correspondent for life insurance company investors. There his underwriting responsibilities included site inspections, lease reviews and writing appraisals for office, medical, industrial, retail, apartment and marina properties in fee and leasehold estates secured by 1st, 2nd & 3rd trust deeds, primarily in Southern California. He later was part of a two person loan production team in the Newport Beach headquarters of the commercial real estate division of Cal Fed Mortgage, consistently exceeding production goals for permanent, bridge and construction loans on a national basis.
As a principal he has formed numerous profitable development partnerships for apartments, condominiums, planned unit developments, single family residences and retail shopping. As a broker he has arranged equity capital, preferred equity capital, equity-participating mezzanine debt, equity-participating 2nd trust deeds, structured finance transactions, construction loans and adjustable and fixed rate loans for development, renovation, purchase and refinance of individual project capitalizations ranging from $500,000 to in excess of $50 million.
Don is a licensed California Real Estate Broker and licensed California General Contractor (B-1). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration-Accounting from California State University Northridge and holds a Certificate in Investment Real Estate from University of California Irvine.
Carrie Nikols
Principal, Chief Lending Officer
Carrie Nikols is a Principal and Chief Lending Officer with the Nikols Company, responsible for loan origination and underwriting. Her three-decade commercial real estate experience ranges from institutional permanent lending and large balance bridge loans to smaller bank and private money construction and tailored transactions to numerous underwriting and appraisal assignments.
Prior to joining The Nikols Company, Carrie was Senior Vice President of Chicago based Builders Bank with responsibility for loan production in Southern California. Builders provided more expensive short-term construction and bridge loans up to 85% of costs ranging from $500,000 to $12,000,000 targeting the small residential and income property builder/developer.
Carrie was also Western Region Manager for Connecticut based DaimlerChrysler Capital Services (debis) responsible for all loan production in the western region. DaimlerChrysler Capital Services was a credit company targeting $10 to $75 million highly leveraged bridge loans on properties in transition nationwide. Carrie established the western region office and grew her personal loan volume to 1/3 of national loan production as one of 15 producers. She also pioneered various loan structures and product types within the company including mezzanine loans, tax-exempt bond letter of credit enhancements with taxable tails, assisted living facilities, self-storage facilities, and single-tenant biotech properties. All loans were handled as agreed with no defaults and most were performing better than underwritten prior to the sale of this division of the company.
Carrie’s bridge loan/structured finance experience also includes employment at Heller Financial, Fremont Investment & Loan, Nations Credit and Sanwa Business Credit. She began her career in 1982 with John Burnham & Company, a mortgage banker with multiple life company correspondencies. She has also written approximately 50 income property and residential subdivision appraisals as a state certified appraiser and MAI candidate.
Carrie holds a California Real Estate Sales license and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration-Real Estate Finance.
Casey Reichel
Chief Financial Officer
Casey Reichel is Chief Financial Officer with The Nikols Company, responsible for investment analysis and investor relations. He brings financial and analytical expertise honed over 15 years in the real estate and management consulting industries.
Casey has extensive real estate experience, previously serving as Finance & Strategy Director and co-owner of Sunwest Enterprises, a Southern California residential development and investment firm. At Sunwest, Casey generated more than $100 million in revenues and $30 million in profits, directing the acquisition, entitlement, design and approval of residential projects totaling more than 500 homes. His record of project leadership and delivering results enhances The Nikols Company’s ability to assess the strength of potential loan investments.
Prior to Sunwest, Casey served as Principal at Mercer Consulting where he managed high-impact consulting engagements with top executives for Fortune 100 and emerging companies. Casey’s experience with Mercer helped him to become highly skilled at synthesizing financial data and extracting insight to identify, build consensus for and implement value creation opportunities. His consulting projects included work in value management, performance measurement, target setting and executive compensation.
Casey holds a B.B.A. with a finance focus from the University of Michigan’s School of Business in Ann Arbor where he received numerous academic honors. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Finance Committee at St. Catherine of Siena Parish School in Laguna Beach.
Loretta Schultz
Chief Operating Officer
Loretta Schultz is Chief Operating Officer of The Nikols Company where she is responsible for overseeing loan servicing, monitoring the loan portfolio, regulatory compliance, development and execution of policies and procedures and day-to-day management of all corporate and general office functions. With 20 years of commercial real estate lending experience, she brings a wealth of expertise to The Nikols Company’s operational platform. Loretta is adept in general accounting, loan servicing, loan documentation, cash management, credit analysis, federal regulations compliance and internal loan policies. She has also held management positions in underwriting, processing and servicing for commercial loan portfolios.
Loretta’s experience includes 14 years in the banking industry with positions as Vice President of First California Bank and Vice President & Portfolio Manager of South Coast Commercial Bank where she hired, managed and trained staff for all aspects of processing, underwriting and servicing a variety of commercial real estate loan programs in a $120 million portfolio, ensuring efficient and accurate compliance with federal regulations and internal loan policies.
Most recently, Loretta served as the Loan Servicing Manager for Clearinghouse CDFI. In this position, she managed and coordinated the start-up of an in-house servicing department for a $320 million portfolio. Loretta was also instrumental in reducing delinquencies, bringing files into compliance and approving loan documentation to ensure proper collateralization.
Prior to joining Clearinghouse, she was the Vice President & Corporate Administrator for a start-up commercial real estate lending company where she coordinated the development of documents, forms, policies and procedures. Additional responsibilities included management of all corporate and general office functions, accounts payable/receivable, general accounting functions and human resources.
Loretta holds an Associate of the Arts degree in accounting from Orange Coast College.