Bridger to Resume Commercial RE Lending

Bridger Commercial Funding, San Francisco, is resuming originating new commercial real estate loans. Loans made under Bridger's new program will be underwritten to eligibility standards for securitization under the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. Bridger said in addition the program would offer commercial real estate borrowers the flexibility to access a range of alternative financing structures. To date, individual borrowers have been locked out of TALF-supported financings because of the pooling requirement for newly originated loans. The new Bridger program addresses this obstacle by assembling a diversified portfolio of loans from many different borrowers that will be eligible for attractive, nonrecourse securitization funding offered under TALF. "Recent activity in the CMBS market is signaling that the credit logjam plaguing commercial real estate lending for the past two years is starting to break," said Bridger executive vice president Peter Grabell. "CMBS bond yields have fallen throughout the year, to the point where newly originated CMBS loans are becoming a viable financing option once again for borrowers." Loan amounts are between from $2 million to $20 million. Qualifying property types are multifamily, manufactured housing communities, office, retail, industrial/warehouse and self-storage. Fixed-rate loan maturities from three to five years will be offered, with traditional amortization and balloon payment features. Separately, Florida East Coast Industries, Inc., Coral Gables, Fla., has closed a $460 million property financing related to 44 office and industrial properties and certain right-of-way assets. The lender on the transaction was Bank of America NA, which subsequently securitized the loan through Banc of America Securities LLC. The company claims this transaction represents the first new issue, nongovernment supported commercial real estate securitization in 18 months.