Sentinel Capital Partners

Sentinel Capital Partners is a New York based private equity firm that invests in lower middle market companies across the United States and Canada. The firm focuses on businesses that often depend on physical locations to serve customers, including restaurants, healthcare services, industrial businesses, and other service platforms. Sentinel typically acquires controlling stakes, then provides capital and strategic support so its portfolio companies can grow through new unit development, acquisitions, and operational improvements.

The firm was founded in 1994 by David Lobel and John McCormack after prior careers at large financial institutions. Over more than three decades, Sentinel has grown from a small sponsor into a widely recognized middle market investor with institutional backing from pensions and other large capital providers. A notable milestone has been the firm’s ability to consistently raise new flagship funds and related vehicles, which has allowed it to back larger platforms and execute more complex corporate carve outs while still concentrating on the lower middle market.

As of December 2025, Sentinel does not operate consumer facing stores under its own name, but many of its portfolio companies manage sizable real estate footprints. These include multi unit restaurant brands, outpatient healthcare and diagnostic platforms, and industrial and specialty service businesses that occupy warehouses, plants, and field locations. Recent activity includes acquiring Carrier’s Industrial Fire business and relaunching it as Spectrum Safety Solutions, a safety and fire protection platform that serves industrial facilities and mission critical environments. Sentinel has also invested in TTG Imaging Solutions, a diagnostic imaging business that helps hospitals and clinics expand and upgrade their equipment base. In industrials and building products, its acquisition of NSI Industries and other platforms has added further exposure to distribution centers, manufacturing space, and service hubs.

Over roughly the last five years, Sentinel has been active in buy and build strategies, using add on acquisitions to help portfolio companies enter new regions, round out service offerings, and gain scale. For restaurant concepts such as Checkers & Rally’s and Newk’s Eatery, this has often translated into new unit growth, remodeling programs, and selective market infill. In services and industrial platforms, the same approach has supported both network expansion and site consolidation, as larger operators rationalize overlapping locations and reposition space for higher value uses. The firm also works with management teams to evaluate real estate ownership, and some portfolio companies have used sale leaseback transactions or other capital solutions to unlock property value while keeping key locations in place.

As of December 2025, Sentinel continues to deploy new capital from recently raised funds and to pursue add on acquisitions for existing platforms. Its geographic focus remains North America, particularly the United States and Canada, with some portfolio companies serving global customer bases. For landlords, brokers, and developers, Sentinel tends to show up as the financial sponsor behind growing occupiers rather than as a tenant itself. When Sentinel backs a brand, that brand often gains both the capital and the mandate to expand, optimize, or recapitalize its real estate footprint, which can create a steady pipeline of new site requirements, relocations, and ownership transitions across restaurant, healthcare, and industrial properties.