Residential deals drove lending activity at Parkview Financial in 2020. The firm closed a record loan volume last year, despite the pandemic, with a total of $600 million in construction loans. Residential projects, both apartment and condo, drove 90% of that activity.

"While we lend on all property sectors, last year multifamily comprised the bulk of our financing activity. Apartment and condo projects made up about 90 percent of our loan volume," Paul Rahimian, CEO, Parkview Financial, tells GlobeSt.com. "The majority of our sponsors in 2020 were small- to mid-sized developers who were looking to secure financing quickly and have hands-on support when it came to the entire lending process. The "time is money" theme was pretty consistent feedback we heard from them. They needed to get their projects going and done as soon as possible in order to capture their return on investment."

Focusing on residential reflected the demand more than a strategic shift. In term of strategy, Rahimian said that the firm tried to ignore short-term trends. "We frequently talk about strategy relative to the pandemic as some noteworthy market dynamics have emerged, but we question the longevity of many of the trends that are making headlines," he says. "There are certainly useful data points coming out for lenders right now, but there is also a lot of noise from the marketplace that we have to be careful doesn't enter into our decision making."