Who We Are
John R. Gorga’s career in real estate finance spans nearly 4 years, beginning in 1979 with credit training at BayBank Harvard Trust, equipping him with invaluable skills in analyzing the credit quality of both borrowers and tenants as well as underwriting real estate. In 1982, Mr. Gorga joined the Mortgage Finance Group of Boston Financial, where he became a principal and co-head of the group in 1990. In 1995 he co-founded Fantini & Gorga. During his career, Mr. Gorga has personally structured and placed hundreds of financing transactions, totaling over $3.5 billion, across all property types and segments of the capital markets.
Mr. Gorga serves as the firm’s president and as principal expert both on capital sources and on structuring of transactions, while personally handling a broad range of financings for clients. He is also is a specialist in private placement financings, including a subspecialty in funding corporate investor notes in institutional tax credit funds. Mr. Gorga holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Rhode Island and is active in a range of trade groups.
President & Principal
Tim O’Donnell has over 40 years of experience in real estate finance and investment. From 1989-1999 he was President of O’Donnell Real Estate Capital, Inc., a successful mortgage brokerage firm which he merged into Fantini & Gorga in 1999. Prior to 1989 he was a principal in the mortgage, syndication, and property management firm of Connolly, O’Donnell & Company. He also held positions in the property development arm of Fidelity Investments and in the real estate department at The First National Bank of Boston.
For Fantini & Gorga, Mr. O’Donnell is active in the management of the firm. He also serves as Chairman of the firm’s affiliate FHA Lender, Eastern Mortgage Capital.
Mr. O’Donnell holds an A.B. from Harvard and was a Knox Fellow in urban studies at the University of London. He received an S.T.L from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, and holds a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Exec. Managing Director
Heather C. Baldassari oversees Fantini & Gorga’s internal operations, including financial controls, human resources, technology, and facilities. She also is responsible for the firm’s marketing program and for regulatory compliance. In addition, she acts as the Director of Loan Servicing, overseeing servicing operations for $400 million +/- in loans for the company’s correspondent lenders.
Ms. Baldassari began her career with Fantini & Gorga in 2001, and has had a variety of positions with the firm since then, including the position of Analyst, responsible for underwriting a broad range of real estate assets. She holds a BS in Finance from Bentley College.
Senior Vice President
Cas Groblewski has over 40 years of experience in commercial real estate finance. From 1983 through 2002 he was associated with Legg Mason Real Estate Services, Inc. and its predecessor firm, Spectrum Financial Corporation. Prior to that, he was a Vice President and Loan Officer for NeWorld Bank and Union National Bank. Over the course of his career, Mr. Groblewski has completed more than $3.0 billion in commercial real estate transaction for virtually all property types.
At Fantini & Gorga, Mr. Groblewski is responsible for providing solutions to clients with financing requirements involving both commercial and multifamily properties. In addition, he manages the firm’s national practice in self-storage financing, a field in which he has personally completed dozens of transactions with a wide array of capital sources. He is also active in maintaining relationships with some of the firm’s key capital sources and correspondents. Mr. Groblewski earned an MBA with Highest Distinction from Babson College and a BA with Honors from Williams College. He is an active member of Lambda Alpha, the international institute devoted to the study of land economics. Mr. Groblewski also serves on the Board of Directors of Casa Myrna Vazquez and is a member of his local community’s Board of Assessors.
Senior Managing Director
Wayne Clough has over 35 years’ experience in commercial real estate finance. From 1984 to 2002 he was associated with the mortgage banking operations of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. and its affiliates, Boston Financial and Lend Lease. Prior to 1984, he served as a Property Investment Officer for Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, now known as Sun Life Financial. During his career he has completed in excess of $2.4 billion in commercial real estate transactions, including a number of portfolio loans.
At Fantini & Gorga he is primarily responsible for the structuring and placement of financing for commercial real estate with an emphasis on institutional debt. Mr. Clough holds an MBA from Babson College and a BS in Accounting from Bentley College. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Massachusetts and a frequent guest speaker at Real Estate Programs at Boston University and Harvard. In addition, he taught the Financing Program at the Commercial Brokers Association, a course offered to commercial brokers to meet their requirements for renewal of their Massachusetts real estate broker licenses.
He has been active with several community activities including, President of the Duxbury Education Foundation, Secretary of the Wellfleet Parking Task Force and active with the Wellfleet Conservation Trust.
Managing Director
Colin Monahan supports Fantini & Gorga’s underwriting and placement of various real estate transactions with capital sources. He is responsible for market, property, and financial analysis; loan packaging, capital source outreach, due diligence oversight, and loan closing.
Prior to joining Fantini & Gorga, he worked as a Lease Administrator with the Boston Planning & Development Agency managing their commercial lease portfolio. He holds a BS in Business Administration from the College of Charleston and a Certificate in Real Estate Finance from Boston University.
Senior Analyst
George Fantini retired at the end of 2018 after a distinguished career spanning 54 years.
George J. Fantini, Jr. started his career as a credit analyst at State Street Bank in November of 1964. After 15 years as a lender at State Street and BayBank, in 1981 Mr. Fantini established a mortgage banking operation at The Boston Financial Group, one of the nation’s leading real estate investment banking firms. In 1995 he co-founded Fantini & Gorga with John Gorga.
Over the past five decades, Mr. Fantini has been involved in the successful completion of more than one thousand transactions, dealing with both debt and equity on every conceivable type of property. Mr. Fantini holds a BSA from Bentley University and an MBA from Boston College. He was the founding author of the Master Money Matrix © series which has been published in the New England Real Estate Journal for over 30 years and is widely used as a teaching tool in the real estate finance programs at many colleges and universities.
He has served as a director of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, Atlantic Bank, Northeast Savings, NAIOP, and the Boston Financial Group; and he has been a trustee of Meditrust and of Bentley University. In 1987, Mr. Fantini persuaded the Greater Boston Real Estate Board to launch a separate division to deal solely with real estate finance, and served as the founding president of what is known today as the Real Estate Finance Association (“REFA”), with over 2,000 members. In 1997 REFA honored him with the Robert Swain, Jr. award for his distinguished contributions to the real estate finance industry and at the 2014 REFA 25th anniversary banquet he was awarded life membership for his founding role in REFA. The below video clip includes his remarks concerning the founding of REFA.
Chairman Emeritus