Case Study: $2.2M Net-Lease Retail Strip Loan with a Life Insurance Lender in Calumet City

The Deal That Walked in the Door

We are Commercial Lending Solutions, a commercial mortgage brokerage based in Los Angeles, and this financing brought us a California-based investor targeting a national-tenant-anchored retail strip in Calumet City, Illinois (IL), just south of Chicago. Out-of-state net-lease retail is a common allocation for California capital, but it requires a life insurance company lender genuinely comfortable underwriting a property it has never physically visited on behalf of a borrower based two time zones away. Commercial Lending Solutions specializes in net-lease retail and permanent financing for out-of-state investors across the country.

Life insurance company balance sheet lenders are built for exactly this kind of transaction: institutional underwriting driven by the property's income and lease structure rather than a local branch relationship, which made a life insurance lender the right fit for a coastal investor buying into the Chicago suburbs and Calumet City in particular.

What Made It Hard

• An out-of-state closing with strict document sequencing. The lender required every signature obtained in the escrow officer's physical presence, explicitly rejecting power-of-attorney execution, which meant coordinating signings without the flexibility a local closing typically allows.
• A funding process gated on same-day confirmation. The lender would not wire any proceeds until it had received certified copies of every executed document, the signed settlement statement, and the proforma title policy, all confirmed no later than one business day before funding.
• Illinois-specific recording sequencing. The transfer deed and the mortgage had to be submitted for recording in Cook County in a specific order, with recording numbers reported back to the lender immediately, a procedural detail that doesn't come up on California-only transactions.

"A life insurance lender that won't wire a dollar until every certified document is confirmed forces real discipline on the closing. Managing that from two time zones away is what made this deal work."

How We Ran the Process

Trevor Damyan, a California-licensed real estate broker (DRE #02244836), placed the financing with Symetra Life Insurance Company, with lender's closing instructions issued June 8, 2023:

• $2,200,000 in loan proceeds, secured by a first mortgage, assignment of rents, security agreement, and fixture filing on the Calumet City retail property
• A personal guaranty executed by the guarantor, alongside an environmental agreement and indemnity covering the property
• A Certificate of Limited Liability Company and a signed Action by Unanimous Written Consent of the sole member of the borrowing entity, required before Symetra would authorize funding
• A real estate note payable to Symetra, with interest from the date of disbursement to one month prior to the first payment date due at closing
• A $4,000 processing fee and a $200 CoreLogic tax service reporting fee, both deducted directly from the borrower's good faith deposit
• An ALTA Mortgagee's title insurance policy from Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company, issued within five business days of closing per the lender-approved proforma policy
• A defined document delivery sequence: certified PDF copies of the note, guaranty, environmental agreement, LLC certificate, and mortgage submitted to the lender one business day before funding, with original signed documents following by overnight delivery the next business day
• A specific Cook County recording order: the transfer deed recorded first, followed immediately by the mortgage in favor of Symetra, with recording numbers reported back to the lender for clearance before any further disbursement

The loan closed in June 2023, funding the acquisition financing on the Calumet City retail strip and giving the California-based ownership group an institutional balance-sheet lender relationship on an out-of-state asset.

Why We Won This One

Coordinating this closing to Symetra's exacting document and funding sequence, rather than treating it like a standard California escrow, is what got this deal to the finish line cleanly. A lender that won't wire funds until every certified document has been confirmed and won't accept power-of-attorney signatures demands tighter choreography between escrow, the borrower, and the lender's closing desk than a typical regional bank closing.

Getting the Illinois-specific recording sequence right, transfer deed first, mortgage second, with immediate confirmation back to the lender, also mattered on a transaction where neither the borrower nor CLS was physically local to the property or the title company handling the Cook County recording. Managing that coordination remotely kept the closing on the lender's timeline.

Is This Structure Right for Your Deal?

If you're a California-based investor looking at net-lease retail outside your home market, an institutional balance-sheet lender comfortable underwriting property income over local relationships can make an out-of-state closing straightforward. We arrange retail property financing and permanent loans from a network of more than 1,000 capital sources.

Apply for financing or call us at 310.708.0690 to talk through your acquisition.

Trevor Damyan

Commercial Mortgage Broker, Commercial Lending Solutions | CA DRE 02244836

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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