Water Street is a Chicago-based private real estate investment firm focused on short-duration debt and equity investments in net-leased real estate. The firm partners with experienced sponsors to provide flexible capital for construction and transitional opportunities across the United States.
While grounded in net lease, Water Street maintains an opportunistic, asset-class agnostic mandate. The firm operates with a highly discretionary approach, emphasizing alignment, simplicity, and certainty of execution.
Water Street structures investments across the capital stack, including stretch senior debt, preferred equity, common equity, pre-development capital, and forward purchase solutions. Target investments typically range from $1 million to $50 million.
Charlie Vasbinder is a Co-Founder and Principal of Water Street, a private real estate investment firm focused on structured capital solutions within the net lease sector.
Charlie began his career in 2019 at a Chicago-based family office, where he grew into a central role sourcing, underwriting, and originating net lease development loans nationwide. Upon leaving in April 2024, Charlie and Thanas established AKCV-Monroe LLC as their own investment platform. They subsequently worked with a Texas-based private equity real estate firm, where they spent two years scaling its net lease lending business. In parallel, they collaborated with Bill Tsourapas on net lease transactions across various capital structures, including preferred and common equity, mezzanine debt, and forward purchases.
These efforts culminated in the formation of Water Street in April 2026, informed by experience investing alongside private individuals, family offices, institutional investors, and private equity sponsors. Water Street is a purpose-built capital platform designed to capture the most effective elements of each.
Charlie resides in Chicago, IL, and graduated from Northwestern University in 2019 with a B.A. in History.
Bill Tsourapas is a Chicago-based executive whose career spans private equity, capital markets, and corporate finance across multiple decades and industries. He began his career at LaSalle Bank N.A., a subsidiary of ABN AMRO, where he rose to Vice President of Commercial Loans, managed a $250 million portfolio, and closed more than $3 billion in transactions.
He subsequently held a senior finance role at ACL International, a supply chain and product design firm supporting the retail infrastructure of several of the largest U.S. retail chains.
Bill later served as CFO and a founding shareholder of Emess Design Group, where he was the financial architect behind Hampton Bay—Home Depot's flagship lighting brand—as well as a portfolio of licensed products bearing the names Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and NASCAR. Under his leadership, the business grew to over $150 million in annual revenue prior to a private equity sale in 2004.
In the years since, Bill has operated at the intersection of distressed assets and private credit, serving on the advisory board of Clark Street Capital and partnering with Victory Park Capital at Atria Capital Group to acquire Giordano's Enterprises, the iconic Chicago institution. In 2024, in collaboration with Charlie and Thanas, the team began synthesizing net lease solutions across various capital structures; efforts that ultimately culminated in the formation of Water Street.
Thanas Kountroubis is a Co-Founder and Principal of Water Street, a private real estate investment firm focused on structured capital solutions within the net lease sector.
Thanas began his career in 2019 at a Chicago-based family office, where he grew into a central role sourcing, underwriting, and originating net lease development loans nationwide. Upon leaving in April 2024, Thanas & Charlie established AKCV-Monroe LLC as their own investment platform. They subsequently worked with a Texas-based private equity real estate firm, where they spent two years scaling its net lease lending business. In parallel, they collaborated with Bill Tsourapas on net lease transactions across various capital structures, including preferred and common equity, mezzanine debt, and forward purchases.
These efforts culminated in the formation of Water Street in April 2026, informed by experience investing alongside private individuals, family offices, institutional investors, and private equity sponsors. Water Street is a purpose-built capital platform designed to capture the most effective elements of each.
Thanas resides in Chicago, IL, and graduated as a student-athlete from Northwestern University in 2019 with a B.A. in Economics.
Water Street operates as a private investment firm. Access to fund materials and investment information is limited to qualified investors and existing partners.
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