17. Partnership Investments

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had invested an aggregate of approximately $43.0 million in five limited liability companies in which it held non-controlling interests. The Company’s ownership interest in four of the limited liability companies ranges from approximately 7% to 49% and one of the partnerships is owned 100% by the Company. The Company accounts for these investments at cost because the Company does not manage the entities and thus, has no control or have significant influence over the investments. The third-party manager of the investments is a commercial real estate finance company that provides debt capital solutions to local and regional commercial real estate owners in the Northeastern United States. The Company’s withdrawal from each limited liability company may only be granted by the manager of such entity. Each limited liability company has elected to be treated as a partnership for income tax purposes.

The Company’s partnership investments can be categorized into two fund structures, fund investments and direct loan investments. The fund investments primarily include investments in two partnerships that invest in mortgage loans. The direct loan investments are through three partnerships whereby the Company directly invests in the participation of individual loans. Both the fund and direct loan structure primarily invest in mortgage loans to borrowers with a majority of the deals being leveraged by a bank. These loans are primarily two- to three- year collateralized mortgage loans, often with contractual extension options for the borrowers of an additional year. The Company receives quarterly dividends from the partnerships that are composed of a preferred return, return of capital and promote depending on each loan’s waterfall calculation, as defined by the loan agreements. The Company’s interests in the funds are not redeemable at any time, as its investment will be repaid as the underlying loans are repaid. The Company expects to be repaid on its current investments by December 31, 2027.

For the year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, the partnerships generated $3,521,721 and $1,809,564, respectively, of income for the Company.

At December 31, 2023, the Company had unfunded partnership commitments totaling approximately $3.9 million.