commercial property

It’s a monumental milestone for Terry Luker as he is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his commercial lending brokerage, Alternative Capital Solutions (ACS), this fall. After founding ACS in 2013, Luker knew that the commercial real estate market was one that would take consistent adaptation, patience and hard work when building his customer-base. After spending more 25 years in the automotive and finance worlds, Luker was determined to become a networking expert in this new adventure and solidify relationships with banks and lending partners across the country – a goal that has generated a highly-successful 10 years for ACS and has further enabled Luker to mentor to others in the industry. With this strategy, he also quickly became one of the most well-connected and authentic professionals in the industry.

Putting an emphasis on networking and mentorship allowed Luker to help lead the industry away from cookie-cutter lending methods, but instead to a customer-focused approach based on their needs and goals. An approach that is centered on outside-the-box thinking. One of Luker’s mottos that aligns with this belief is, “When a deal doesn’t fit in a certain box, simply build a new box.” The team at ACS continues to stand by this motto when it comes to building lending solutions for their clients.

Luker additionally explains his stance on unique deal structure by describing how his, “Favorite thing about ACS is the fact that every client is different, and the lending needs of each client is different.” He continues this thought with noting that, “It is fun and exciting to get to work with clients and figure out the best way to meet those clients’ funding needs. Every situation is unique, and every opportunity creates a moment of learning for us – even after ten years in business.” This signature outlook that Luker holds is what has allowed him to standout within the industry early on and has led him to being awarded by the National Alliance of Commercial Loan Brokers (NACLB) in both 2014 and 2016 with accolades as both the NACLB Rookie of the Year and NACLB Broker of the year, respectively.

An additional point that has allowed ACS to grow and adapt since 2013 has been Luker’s acute sense of delegation. Luker realized quickly in the initial years that several tasks were getting in his way of building authentic client relationships – which meant the need to build a team that could take on those extracurriculars outside of his main areas of focus. Luker is a proud team leader and firmly believes that creating departments and making top-talent hires in key roles has enabled ACS to plug experts into the fields of credit and underwriting, business development, finance, and marketing throughout the years – allowing deals to be worked quickly and seamlessly while Luker is able to do what he does best — network and nurture industry relationships while also staying active in mentoring to the commercial lending community of brokers such as with his proprietary e-learning tool, The Commercial Broker Playbook.

Employment and office culture is a hot topic in today’s environment. When Luker was asked to describe the culture of ACS and what he finds important when it comes to the ACS employees, he excitedly replied that, “This is an easy one for me, family. We work together as a team, and no one is afraid of the work we have, and each person is eager to jump in and help on any project that we are working on – no matter how time-consuming it might be.” Jeff Luker, Luker’s son and the vice president and chief operations officer of ACS, echoed this belief and included that stability and trust are two of the values that are held at ACS. “The core group of the company has been together for eight years. Most of our employees have children so we truly strive to put family first.”

Looking optimistically to the future of ACS, Luker is thrilled to see the next generation put their spin on the company saying, “I am the oldest person on staff in our company. I look forward to stepping aside and watching these young people take the reins and continue to grow ACS in the next few years. We have a core of people that are passionate about what we do and to be able to watch them all grow and develop is truly a fulfilling experience for me personally.”

Thanks to Luker’s keen sense of strategy and industry knowledge, ACS has become one of the nation’s leading commercial loan brokerages and is showing no signs of slowing the momentum. Furthermore, Jeff has been passionate about learning the “ACS way” structured by his father, Luker, and works to instill the core values that have been established since 2013. Jeff recently discussed the future direction of ACS and stated, “I thoroughly believe that with the quality of our staff and their drive to succeed, there’s no limit to the number of business owners we can continue to help. Our team has a great ability to be flexible and without a ‘standard deal type’ to hold to, we are always able to quickly pivot in a way that best assists our clients.”

“Exciting. Adventurous. Creative.” These are the keywords Luker uses to describe the spirit of ACS – saying further that, “Our team over these last ten years has certainly evolved. If you would have told me ten years ago that this is where we would be today, I’m not sure I would have believed you. We are blessed with people that look for ways to help our clients and not for ways to say “no” to get a deal off their desk. We have truly been blessed.”

Join ACS in celebrating 10 years of creative lending solutions, authentic networking, and exemplary leadership – 10 years of Alternative Capital Solutions and a decade of Luker building a business that continues to exceed the expectations of all who experience the “ACS way.”