Buckhead-Based Angel Oak Enters CRE Financing Space

ATLANTA, GA—Angel Oak Companies is launching a commercial lending arm, Angel Oak Commercial Lending to provide financing to commercial real estate owners, developers and investors.

Angel Oak calls its new lending arm “the next evolutionary step for Angel Oak Companies, which has played a major role in the revitalization of the securitization market for residential non-qualified mortgages.”

Angel Oak Commercial Lending will provide both short- and long-term financing for projects across the commercial sector, including multifamily, industrial, mixed use, retail, office, self-storage and other specialized segments.

“There is a lending void in specific segments of commercial real estate, especially those under $5 million in size,” says Ben Easterlin V, senior vice president of commercial lending at Angel Oak, and managing director of the new commercial lending arm. “In many cases, banks may be constrained in their ability to make commercial real estate loans due to government regulations or corporate limitations on the types and amounts of loans they can issue. Angel Oak Commercial Lending will be a viable solution to provide capital for deserving property developers, owners and investors in commercial real estate.”

Over his 20-year career, Easterlin has provided, arranged or consulted on more than $3 billion of debt and equity placements while working at several previous lending firms.

Angel Oak Commercial Lending is banking on the firm’s previous success in residential lending businesses, particularly in the non-QM market, where the company says its lending affiliates combined to issue more than $1.1 billion in non-QM loans in 2017.

“Angel Oak has an established track record of providing financing in constrained and dislocated markets and sees commercial lending as the next extension of this line of thinking,” Easterlin says.