He Lost a 21-Story Building Overnight. Then He Rebuilt the Right Way.

Rebuilding After the Storm: How Eric Brody Went From Foreclosure to a Capital Markets Powerhouse

Eric Brody used to build towers.

By 2019, he had developed 800 units across 40 projects and was wrapping up a 21-story ground-up development on the Upper East Side. It was delivered on time, on budget, and fully compliant.

Then COVID hit. The market collapsed. And the lender foreclosed.

That single loss wiped out nearly 100 percent of his capital, four and a half years of work, and the foundation of his career as a builder.

Most developers would have walked away. Eric didn’t.

Instead, he studied where he went wrong, ran an after-action report, and reinvented himself from scratch.

Today, he runs ANAX, a real estate capital advisory firm that combines tech-enabled workflows, top-of-funnel media, and deep operational know-how to help sponsors and credit funds close real deals, fast.

This is how he rebuilt — and what he’s learned about raising, deploying, and structuring capital in today’s real estate cycle.

The Play: Own the Deals, and the Capital Will Follow

When Eric lost his building, he went on a mission to understand where his blind spots were.

What he found shocked him. A data platform showed that his micro-market had over 10 years of unsold inventory. No lender or investor had seen it. But the data was clear. That project was doomed before it ever went vertical.

That epiphany led to a new thesis:

The most valuable thing in real estate isn’t money. It’s insight.

Eric and his partner studied 9,000 proptech companies, launched a podcast to attract dealmakers, and raised a small venture fund to back technology that could give sponsors an edge.

From that, a new business was born. ANAX became a capital advisory firm built around one mission — helping borrowers and credit funds find and execute on the right deals, with better data and sharper workflows.

Why This Works

1. Top of funnel = deal flow
Eric doesn’t cold call. He uses performance marketing, creator partnerships, and smart content to keep ANAX top of mind. They now see $300M to $400M in deal flow per month.

2. Tech enables speed and scale
ANAX built internal tools to track which lenders are active, which developers need cash, and what deals are worth pursuing. His team uses crawlers, CRMs, and underwriting automation to stay ahead.

3. Lenders are coming to him
As traditional banks pull back, private credit funds are stepping in. But they need partners who know how to structure deals, finish broken projects, and underwrite risk. Eric is now being tapped to complete developments that other sponsors left unfinished.

The Risks (And How He Avoids Them)

Overexposure to a single asset:
Eric learned the hard way that even a great development can fail if the macro turns. Now he focuses on scalable services and partnerships, not asset-heavy risk.

Lender misalignment:
Most borrowers see lenders as vendors. Eric sees them as partners. He reverse-engineers every deal to understand how the senior debt, pref equity, and LP capital can all exit safely.

Bad story = no raise:
If your pitch doesn’t excite LPs, it won’t work. Eric coaches clients to lead with obsession. If the sponsor isn’t fired up, the investor won’t be either.

What You Can Learn (and Steal)

1. Own the deal flow
The fastest way to attract capital is to show up with deals. ANAX’s marketing machine drives inbound borrower interest at scale. No cold emails. Just relevance and reach.

2. Track your cap stack like a builder
Eric spent years managing GCs and subs. That lens makes him lethal at underwriting risk. He knows exactly what it costs to finish a project — and where the hidden value is.

3. Pitch like your life depends on it
Because sometimes, it does. Whether you’re a developer or a tech founder, your job is to sell the story with conviction. No one will believe in the deal if you don’t.

Listen to the full episode

🎙 Groundbreakers with Eric Brody

In it, we cover:

• How he scaled to 800 units before COVID took it all

• The exact data mistake that cost him a 21-story tower

• Why lenders are now paying him to finish failed projects

• How tech workflows give him unfair deal access

• What every developer needs to understand about today’s capital stack