Mark Ziegler

Mark Ziegler is Managing Partner at Dry Creek Capital Partners, a Greenwood Village, Colorado-based special situations investing firm focused on distressed commercial real estate debt and small business debt. Dry Creek says it invests in debt obligations of both distressed commercial real estate and company assets up to $50 million and operates nationally.

Before Dry Creek, Ziegler was a co-founder and Managing Partner of Excelsior Capital Partners. Dry Creek’s team page says he has more than 25 years of experience at distressed investment firms, originating, evaluating and underwriting more than $1 billion of investments. Excelsior focused on distressed debt, special situations and specialty lending across commercial real estate and operating companies.

Earlier in his career, Ziegler was a Managing Director at Republic Financial Corp. from 2007 to 2011. He earned both a BSBA and an MBA from the University of Denver.

Dry Creek launched publicly in May 2021 with Steve Emerson, Mark Ziegler, Nate Cann and Andrew Young as partners. The launch announcement said the team had worked together for more than 10 years at predecessor firms in the distressed loan market and announced an exclusive joint venture with 400 Capital Management.

• Dry Creek focuses on value-credit opportunities, including acquisitions of sub-performing and non-performing commercial real estate loans, lower middle-market and small-business distressed debt, and special situations.
• The firm typically buys debt obligations backed by commercial real estate or business assets at a discount, or refinances existing obligations, then provides capital for turnaround plans and growth.
• Dry Creek emphasizes borrower- and stakeholder-friendly resolutions, saying it seeks situations where owners of the commercial real estate asset or business maintain control.
• Ziegler’s stated view at launch was that 400 Capital’s commitment put Dry Creek in a “superior position” to pursue increasing distressed commercial debt flows.
• Excelsior’s earlier strategy overlapped with Dry Creek’s: distressed debt, specialty lending and special situations involving companies with challenges but promising fundamentals.