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Tight, Active Market Making Banker Selective About Clients

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Lower interest rates, softening demand for commercial and multifamily space will not affect the values of real estate much in Orange County this year, according to a local banker.

By Joel Cone | Updated on January 19, 2001

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Being located in a very hot, active market has made Patrick Avison, SVP and area manager for Sanwa Bank of California’s Real Estate Industry Group, and and his Orange County staff very selective about the clients the bank takes on.

With interest rates going down 50 basis points already this year, money is readily available. Still, competition is stiff among banks for financing new construction in the county. Functioning strictly as a construction lender, Avison says he looks to cultivate relationships with only the most successful developers. They don’t take on spec builders of one or two projects, nor do they use the shotgun approach to the market, taking on any assets just to pile on exposure in the marketplace.

“We don’t try to compete with the permanent market for doing long-term mortgages, and we don’t do hospitality or special use financing,” Avison says. “We want to be banking the top four or five producers in any market. Those are the entities that are going to be successful. As a consequence of that strategy, our portfolio of customers tends to be smaller and more focused.”

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