Principals of the firm average more than 30 years each in banking, real estate finance, development, commercial real estate management and investment, bringing a wealth of experience and discipline to the decision-making process.
Investors benefit from an added layer of review throughout the investment. From initial vetting of the deal and sponsor through exiting the investment, the Principals and Landbridge will actively be involved to protect and maximize the investment.
The Principals insist on a thorough understanding of the real estate investment, its market position, product segment, the business strategy, and the potential downside risks. We seek to partner with best-in-class developers and managers to maximize return and minimize risk. Each investment is thoroughly vetted for an attractive risk-adjusted expected return before any investment is made.
Martin W. Borden – Principal
With more than 30 years of professional experience, Martin is an informed veteran of the commercial real estate and banking industry. He began his career immediately after graduation from college, when he moved to Raleigh to accept a position with Wachovia Bank and Trust. For the next 15 years, Martin served with Wachovia as a personal banker, a branch manager, and as a lender and producing team leader in the Real Estate Financial Services Group. In 2002, Martin joined Paragon Bank (which was acquired by TowneBank in 2018) as a Senior Vice President specializing in commercial real estate finance in the Raleigh office. As a Commercial Real Estate lender, Martin was involved in over $1.9 Billion in loan production volume. At the end of 2020, Martin retired from a 33-year career in banking to co-found Landbridge Capital, LLC, a Raleigh based commercial real estate private equity fund.
Martin received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987 and completed the Young Executives Institute Program at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2000. His professional accomplishments include serving as a board member of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee (he is an alumnus of the Chamber’s Leadership Raleigh program) and as a former Board and Executive Committee member of the Triangle Community Coalition. As a panelist speaking on commercial real estate lending, Martin has addressed the Triangle Community Coalition, the Triangle chapter of the Urban Land Institute, the Research Triangle Chapter of NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties), the North Carolina Bar Association, Triangle Commercial Association of Realtors and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is currently a member of the TowneBank Raleigh Advisory Board.
His extensive civic activities include serving on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County, where he is a Past Chair of the Board, Past Chair of the Annual Campaign and a current member of the Executive Committee. Martin chaired the Building Committee for the new, state-of-the-art Teen Center for the Boys & Girls Clubs. Martin is an at-large member of the Board of Trustees and Finance Chair for Saint Mary’s School in Raleigh and is a former member of the Advisory Board of Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Virginia. He is the past president of Woodberry’s Triangle Area Association Board and remains on this local board. An Eagle Scout, Martin has supported and has volunteered with the Boy Scouts of America, including BSA Troop 357, where both of his sons achieved the Eagle Scout rank. He is a former board member of the North Carolina Museum of History Associates. Martin has served as a Junior Achievement volunteer and is an active member at Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh, where he co-chaired the Age to Age Capital Campaign and is now serving as Treasurer. Martin has been a member of the Christ Church vestry. He currently participates in the Investment, Finance, and Annual Commitment Committees, and serves as an usher on Sundays.
A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Martin resides in Raleigh with his wife, Elizabeth. They have three grown children.
Bradley A. Rice – Principal
Brad has had a long and multi-faceted real estate career. He began his career at the height of the Savings and Loan crisis in 1989 with the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), predecessor to the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). The RTC was the federal government’s vehicle to deal with problem real estate loans and dispose of foreclosed property.
From the government, Brad went to work for First Union National Bank (predecessor to Wachovia Bank and Wells Fargo Bank) in the Commercial Real Estate Lending Department. He worked on both the credit underwriting side of the bank as well as loan origination. Brad was with the bank in both Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.
In 1998 Brad went to work for a Raleigh-based office development and management company as the Chief Financial Officer, and eventually its Chief Operating Officer. His responsibilities included analyzing potential development opportunities, monitoring cash flow analysis for numerous entities, and negotiating leases, loans, partnerships, joint venture investments as well as maintaining relationships with the company’s banks, attorneys, insurance companies, development partners, and accounting firms.
In 2001, Brad joined Starmount Company, a 75-year-old development company based in Greensboro, N.C. Starmount hired Brad to diversify its portfolio outside of its base in Greensboro with a new operation in the Triangle market of North Carolina. Starmount’s assets were eventually sold in 2008 for $538 million dollars. During his almost eight-year stint with Starmount, the company’s portfolio in the Triangle grew by almost 800,000 square feet of retail and office properties. Brad managed the Raleigh office’s development, leasing, and property management operation. In addition, he negotiated and oversaw significant equity investments made by Starmount in various projects.
After the sale of Starmount Company, Brad joined Midland Atlantic Development Company, a partner of Starmount, in their Durham, N.C. office. In July of 2009 Brad left Midland Atlantic to form his own company, Dovetail Real Estate, LLC from which he has done primarily consulting work in the real estate field. In 2016 Brad co-founded Covenant Commercial Realty, a commercial brokerage operation, with long-time Raleigh real estate broker Colin Brown.
In 2021 Brad co-founded Landbridge Capital, LLC, a Raleigh-based commercial real estate private equity fund. The group’s focus is raising and providing equity to commercial real estate deals alongside trusted and seasoned real estate professionals.
Brad is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a licensed real broker in the state of North Carolina. He is married with two grown boys. Brad is active in his community with various civic organizations, is a two-term Vestry member and former Treasurer of Christ Episcopal Church. In 2010 he started (and still coaches) the DM Lacrosse Mavericks, a middle-school lacrosse program in Raleigh.