Lee Oller

Lee Oller has served as Executive Vice President of Originations and head of Merchants Capital’s Chicago office since she joined Merchants Capital in 2019. Prior to joining Merchants, Ms. Oller was an executive with one of Chicago’s oldest privately held full-service real estate firms. During her 25-year career at the firm, she served as Chief Underwriter for HUD’s FHA Multifamily programs and was responsible for managing a team of analysts, underwriters, economists, originators, and administrative personnel.  She is an approved LEAN Underwriter for HUD’s Healthcare programs.

Ms. Oller has cultivated relationships with real estate investors across the Midwest and beyond. She has vast experience in financing both market rate and affordable transactions, specializing in the restructuring/recapitalization of HUD assisted projects.

Since joining Merchants Capital, Ms. Oller has expanded her lending services from an exclusive focus on all aspects of FHA and HUD lending to a broader range that includes all of Merchants’ lending platforms, including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as well as Merchants Bank balance sheet and bridge loan products.  She has also worked alongside numerous low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity partners to execute complex multi-layered affordable housing transactions. Having come from a background in union labor and new construction, Ms. Oller’s expertise in multifamily development extends beyond loan origination, underwriting and closing.  Her union relationships have been instrumental in creating exciting new financing alternatives for workforce housing, including closing the first Freddie Mac Direct PC Swap workforce housing transaction in the country with the AFL-CIO HIT.

Ms. Oller is a nationally recognized multifamily expert, active in numerous industry groups and multifamily committees both locally and nationally.  She is an officer on the Multifamily Lenders Counsel focused on multifamily housing policy.  Ms. Oller graduated from Loyola University in Chicago.