Dornin Investment Group has made a significant opportunistic play. The Laguna Beach-based firm has acquired a non-performing loan for $195 million. The loan is for an 18-property Southern California portfolio that includes apartment, retail, office and hospitality assets.

Dornin Investment Group, also known as DIG, is an active buyer of non-performing loans since 2010, and the firms CEO and founder Chris Dornin says that its experience in the distressed loan market aided in this acquisition. The firm completed a quick due diligence in only 11 days and closed the acquisition in less than 30 days. This was impressive, considering the loan's size and complexity. Kevin Mackenzie and John Marshall with JLL Capital Markets represented the firm in the transaction and arranged financing.

The transaction shows new opportunities to buy distressed loans. Early in the pandemic, CBRE analysts predicted that investors would have to wait to purchase non-performing loans because lenders were making accommodations to borrowers. Even in the CMBS space, borrowers have been able to negotiate loan forgiveness. In more traditional financing, like banks, CBRE predicted little opportunity for distressed loans because of the accommodations banks were making for distressed borrowers.