Deal at a Glance
| Loan Amount | $4,500,000 |
| Property | Leased research-and-development / industrial building |
| Location | Sunnyvale, California |
| Transaction | First trust deed bridge loan |
| Lender | a California private debt fund |
| Rate | 8.40% fixed, interest-only |
| Term | 12 months |
| Monthly Payment | $31,500.00 (auto-drawn from borrower account) |
| Origination Fee | 1.00 point to lender ($45,000) |
| Broker Fee | 1.00 point ($45,000) |
| Extension Option | Up to 12 additional months at 8.90%, 1.00 point |
| Prepayment Penalty | None |
| Personal Guaranty | None |
| Junior Financing | Permitted, subject to lender consent |
| Closing Timeline | Within 5 days of receipt of complete package |
| Closed | Q4 2024 |
The Deal That Walked in the Door
We are Commercial Lending Solutions, a commercial mortgage brokerage based in Los Angeles, and this deal brought us a leased research-and-development building in Sunnyvale, California (CA), deep in the heart of Silicon Valley, needing fast, flexible first-position bridge financing. The property carries a lease to a well-capitalized technology tenant, real estate that generates dependable income but still needed a lender willing to move on a short timeline without demanding a personal guaranty from the ownership group behind it. Commercial Lending Solutions specializes in bridge loans for leased industrial and R&D properties for investors across California and nationwide.
Sunnyvale's R&D and light-industrial stock is some of the most sought-after in Silicon Valley, leased to the same wave of advanced technology and automotive-technology companies that have driven demand for flex and industrial space across the Peninsula. That kind of underlying tenant credit is exactly what lets a private bridge lender move quickly and confidently.
What Made It Hard
- Speed over structure. The ownership group needed the loan to close on an aggressive timeline, inside five days of a complete package, which meant finding a lender that underwrites the real estate directly rather than routing the file through a multi-week bank committee process.
- No personal guaranty on the table. Getting comfortable pricing a $4.5 million loan on the real estate and lease alone, without recourse to the sponsor personally, required a lender built for exactly this kind of asset-based underwriting.
- Keeping the capital stack flexible. The borrower wanted room to layer in junior financing later if needed, without having to renegotiate the first-position loan to get there.
How We Ran the Process
Trevor Damyan, a California-licensed real estate broker (CA DRE 02244836), placed the loan with a California private debt fund, a Los Angeles-based private lender licensed under California Finance Lenders License No. 603B623, on a conditional offer dated November 13, 2024 and accepted within two days:
- $4,500,000 secured by a first trust deed against the Sunnyvale property
- 8.40% fixed rate, interest-only, with monthly payments of $31,500.00 drawn automatically from the borrower's account
- 12-month term, with a built-in option to extend for up to 12 additional months at 8.90% for one additional origination point, giving the borrower a known cost for more runway if the exit plan needed extra time
- No prepayment penalty anywhere in the term, and no personal guaranty required from the sponsor
- Junior financing permitted, subject to the lender's consent, preserving the borrower's ability to add subordinate capital later
- 1.00 origination point to the lender ($45,000) and a 1.00 point broker fee, plus a nonrefundable $1,500 evaluation and processing fee due at acceptance, with the borrower responsible for third-party title and escrow costs
- Closing within five days of the lender's receipt of a complete loan package, the kind of turnaround only a private balance-sheet lender underwriting directly can commit to
The loan closed cleanly on the strength of the real estate and its in-place lease, giving the ownership group fast, flexible bridge capital without personal recourse or a prepayment penalty standing in the way of their next move.
"Good real estate and a strong tenant can carry a loan on their own. Once we found a lender willing to underwrite it that way, the personal guaranty and the slow timeline both went away."
Why We Won This One
The no-personal-guaranty structure is the detail that made this financeable on the borrower's terms. A lot of private bridge lenders default to requiring a guaranty on a loan this size regardless of asset quality; matching this deal to a lender comfortable underwriting the real estate and the tenant credit on their own strength, rather than falling back on the sponsor's personal balance sheet, is what got the deal done without that recourse.
The five-day closing commitment mattered just as much. Getting a lender to put a specific, aggressive closing timeline in writing, rather than a vague "as fast as possible," gave the borrower certainty they could actually plan around, which is often the real value private capital brings over an institutional alternative.
Is This Structure Right for Your Deal?
If you own a leased commercial building and need capital to move faster than a bank can underwrite it, a private balance-sheet bridge lender can get you there without personal recourse. We arrange bridge loans and industrial and R&D property financing from a network of more than 1,000 capital sources nationwide.
Apply for financing or call us at 310.708.0690 to talk through your Silicon Valley property.
This is one of 46 closings we have arranged across California from our Los Angeles office. See our California commercial financing page, or browse all California closed deals.
Trevor Damyan is a commercial mortgage broker at Commercial Lending Solutions with a background in structured finance at CBRE and Marcus and Millichap Capital Corporation. He specializes in bridge loans, construction financing, SBA programs, DSCR loans, and complex capital structures for investors and developers across all 50 states.
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