WaterStone Bank has opened a new branch in Maple Grove that specializes in commercial real estate lending.

Heading up WaterStone's local team are two real estate veterans in commercial lending, Paul Muldoon and Peter Austin.

Muldoo

n joins WaterStone's commercial lending team with more than 25 years of experience working in multi-family lending, commercial investments and development.

Previously, he worked for Johnson Capital, where he specialized in mortgage brokerage. Prior to that he was a Senior Loan Specialist at Freddie Mac for 12 years, where he structured loans and managed production for the Upper Midwest region. Muldoon was a senior consultant at Cohen Financial and a senior director and analyst at two national development firms.

Muldoon earned a bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Picasa, Star Tribune

Austin also ha

s more than 25 years of commercial real estate lending experience. Prior to joining WaterStone he was a commercial mortgage banker with Towle Financial Services as well as a commercial real estate lender with TCF Bank and a founder, co-owner and manager of Welsh Capital LLC, a commercial loan brokerage operation within Welsh Cos.

Austin received a bachelor's degree in business administration and financial management from the University of St. Thomas.

Doug Gordon, WaterStone Bank's CEO, said in a statement, "WaterStone has a strong capital base to provide for consistent loan growth in the Twin Cities. Our ability to approve and close loans quickly will help real estate owners in their acquisition process."

Janet Moore covers commercial real estate for the Star Tribune.