The Unlikely Partnership of Ndamukong Suh and Willow Wealth (Yieldstreet) - An Update For Investors in Willow Wealth's Portland Multi-Family Debt Offering

Willow Wealth, formerly Yieldstreet, and Mitch Rosen, Head of Real Estate, offered the opportunity to invest in a $11.6 million mezzanine loan for a multifamily property in Portland, Oregon. However, they never disclosed the identity of the Borrower/Developer or the address of the subject property, not allowing investors in the project to be able to perform proper due diligence on the investment.

I decided to do some research with the goal of identifying both the Sponsor and the property with the help of AI. I will do the job that Willow Wealth should have done initially when they offered this investment and disclose these crucial details for investors, albeit too late for them to avoid this disaster at this point.

Boy was I shocked when I found out who the Sponsor is....former NFL player Ndamukong Suh. Full details below from Grok:

The unnamed “Borrower” / “Principals” described in the document are HMS Developments (also referred to as HMS Development), a Portland-based real estate development firm. The two Principals are:

• Ndamukong Suh — former NFL defensive lineman (Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; played for the Eagles, among others) with prior real estate experience. He is co-founder and president of HMS Developments. The document’s reference to “a current NFL player with prior experience investing in real estate (both development and existing structures), restaurants, and other non-real estate businesses” directly matches him (he was still active or recently retired around the March 2022 closing date).
• Joel Andersen — CEO of Andersen Construction (Oregon’s largest family-owned general contractor) and co-founder/advisory partner of HMS Developments. He is the CEO of the “large regional construction company” whose firm also serves as the general contractor on this project. Andersen Construction was founded in 1950 (originally as Andersen-Westfall), is headquartered in Portland with offices in Eugene, Seattle, and Boise, employs hundreds, and has built dozens of multifamily projects across the Pacific Northwest — exactly as described.

As for the property:

Property name: The Weidler (also referred to as Weidler Apartments)

Address: 1784 NW Northrup Street, Portland, OR 97209

Neighborhood: Slabtown / Nob Hill / Northwest Portland (between the Pearl District and Slabtown proper, with direct streetcar access, 0.3 miles from I-405, and easy access to I-5)

Description: A 7-story, 124-unit market-rate multifamily apartment building with 665 sq ft of retail space, developed as a luxury rental community on a ~0.46-acre site.

So how is the project progressing under Mr. Suh's sponsorship? Well, as of Q1 2025, the most recent investor update from Willow Wealth, they give this update on the investment:

"The Property is offering 1-3 month rental concessions for new residents, which is consistent with other newly built properties in the submarket. The Property’s gross rents are ~15% below underwritten projections"

"The loan matured in April 2025 with the borrower failing to repay the investment. As of May 2025, the loan is in maturity default."

"Yieldstreet has received an appraisal from a nationally recognized appraisal firm which indicated the value of the asset in today’s market. The appraisal indicated that the outstanding indebtedness of the borrower is above the current market value of the asset, indicating a full equity loss for the borrower and an impairment of the mezzanine loan"

So to summarize, the loan is in default and the investment is in danger of having the equity and mezzanine loan wiped out.

Why does Willow Wealth not want to disclose such basic details as the property address and name of the Sponsor of the project? It makes you wonder doesn't it. Its almost as if they are trying to hide something from you the investor.