Financing Commercial Properties Investments
San Francisco's commercial real estate market is defined by scarcity, regulatory complexity, and the economic force of the Bay Area's technology industry. Office space in SoMa and Mission Bay reflects the demands of Stripe, OpenAI, Anthropic, Anduril, and the dozens of emerging technology companies that anchor the region's economy. Neighborhood retail on Hayes Street, Clement Street, and the Mission's Valencia Street serves a dense, walkable population that supports small business at extraordinary rent levels for neighborhood-scale locations. Bayview-Hunters Point's legacy industrial stock is being repositioned — slowly and with community benefit obligations — into creative office, life sciences, and maker space that the Bay Area's innovation economy demands.
Financing commercial properties in this environment requires a lender who understands the SF Planning Department's Proposition M office development limits, the city's mixed-use zoning policies, the community benefit agreement requirements that affect development in vulnerable neighborhoods, and the rent control provisions that apply to residential components of mixed-use buildings. Conventional commercial lenders apply national underwriting templates to SF's highly local market; the results are frequent declines on assets that are genuinely valuable but fail template-based metrics.
Hard Money Lender San Francisco provides commercial property financing from $500,000 to $20 million with terms from six months to five years. We underwrite on asset quality, local market position, and business plan feasibility — not on national DSCR templates or borrower income documentation that excludes the self-employed tech founders and family-office operators who are SF's most active commercial property investors.
Commercial acquisition financing closes when conventional commercial lenders cannot. Off-market office buildings in Mission Bay, neighborhood retail buildings on street-level commercial corridors, light industrial in the Bayview available through estate or portfolio liquidation — these assets require purchase commitments within days, not the sixty-to-ninety-day conventional commercial approval process. We close in two to three weeks for standard commercial acquisitions, with preliminary terms in forty-eight hours.
Value-add and repositioning financing funds the improvement programs that create commercial property value in SF's competitive market. Converting an underperforming Hayes Valley retail building to food-and-beverage use, repositioning a dated Mission neighborhood commercial building with new facade, HVAC, and tenant improvement allowances for new tenants, or adaptively reusing Bayview industrial space for creative office — each requires capital structures that account for vacancy during improvement and a ramp-up period before stabilized income is established. We structure interest reserves and flexible draw schedules around these realities.
Lease-up bridge financing carries commercial properties through the period between acquisition or completion and stabilized occupancy. A newly converted SoMa office building with approved plans but no tenants signed needs capital that does not require immediate DSCR coverage. We provide bridge financing through the lease-up period with interest reserves funded at close, setting an LTV that provides adequate collateral coverage even at the current un-stabilized value.
Commercial refinancing without seasoning allows SF commercial property owners to access equity from appreciating assets without the waiting periods that conventional lenders impose. A Potrero Hill mixed-use building acquired eighteen months ago and improved since has equity that is real now; our program accesses it now, not after twelve months of additional seasoning.
Common Challenges We Solve
Proposition M office development limits cap annual office development in San Francisco at 950,000 square feet for large buildings (over 50,000 SF) and 75,000 square feet for small buildings. Projects that exceed these annual limits must enter a priority queue, with selection determined by SF Planning Commission score. For investors and developers acquiring sites for office use, the entitlement uncertainty created by Prop M requires a financing partner who can carry the asset through a potentially multi-year queue without imposing rigid payoff timelines.
Mixed-use regulatory complexity — where a commercial building has residential units subject to rent control and commercial space subject to market lease rates — requires underwriting that evaluates each component separately. We analyze residential income under the SF Rent Ordinance's constraints and commercial income under market lease rate methodology, blending the results with appropriate adjustments for regulatory risk on the residential side. Most conventional commercial lenders apply one framework to the whole building and undervalue or misunderstand the asset.
Community benefit agreements in vulnerable communities affect development and repositioning projects in the Mission, Bayview-Hunters Point, Chinatown, and other neighborhoods identified in SF Planning's displacement risk framework. Landlords who attempt to reposition commercial space in these areas without proactive community engagement face organized opposition that can trigger Discretionary Review on otherwise ministerial permit applications. Investors who build community relationships and negotiate community benefit commitments early move through the process faster and with less political resistance.
Our Approach
Commercial property loans from $500,000 to $20 million, six-month to five-year terms, 60–75% LTV depending on property type, occupancy, and business plan quality. Interest-only options for value-add and repositioning projects. Term sheets within forty-eight hours. Closing in two to three weeks for acquisitions, ten to fourteen days for refinancing. LLC, trust, and corporate entity borrowers accepted with personal guarantees.
We do not require personal income documentation, tax returns, or DTI calculations for commercial property loans. We evaluate the property, the market, and the business plan — then structure the loan around what the asset and the plan actually support.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of commercial properties do you finance in San Francisco?
We finance all major commercial property types: office buildings, retail centers and storefronts, neighborhood commercial mixed-use, industrial warehouses and flex space, creative office adaptive reuse, hospitality properties, and specialty commercial assets. We evaluate each property based on individual merit — location, market demand, tenant quality, and business plan feasibility — rather than applying rigid property-type restrictions. We are particularly active in mixed-use residential/commercial, rent-controlled-adjacent commercial, and Bayview industrial-to-creative repositioning.
What DSCR requirements do you apply to SF commercial properties?
Our DSCR requirements are flexible and property-specific. For stabilized commercial properties with long-term leases to creditworthy tenants, we target 1.10–1.25x DSCR on current income. For value-add properties with significant vacancy or below-market leases, we underwrite stabilized projected income and may accept sub-1.0x current DSCR when the LTV provides adequate collateral protection and the business plan for income improvement is credible. For mixed-use buildings with rent-controlled residential components, we apply separate DSCR analysis to residential and commercial components and assess the blended picture holistically.
Can you finance commercial properties in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood?
Yes, Bayview-Hunters Point is a specialty market for our commercial program. We understand the neighborhood's community benefit agreement framework, environmental review requirements from prior industrial land use, and the coordination with SF Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development that affects many Bayview repositioning projects. Bayview offers some of the last sub-$400/square-foot commercial acquisition opportunities in SF; investors who engage thoughtfully with the neighborhood's community organizations and build genuine relationships are building the strongest long-term positions in the city's most transforming neighborhood.
How do you evaluate SF commercial properties affected by office market uncertainty?
We apply conservative current-income analysis for office properties with near-term lease expirations or current vacancy, using market comparable rents discounted for current SF office absorption rates. We evaluate the building's physical characteristics — clear heights, floor plate efficiency, loading access, natural light — that determine its competitiveness in a market where tenants have quality choices. We also evaluate the potential for adaptive reuse under SF's Housing Conversion Ordinance or SB-71 commercial-to-residential pathways as a value floor. Office market uncertainty is real, but well-located SF commercial real estate with flexible use potential trades at values that hard money financing can support responsibly.
What documentation is required for commercial property loan approval?
For commercial property loans, we require: the property's current rent roll (or offering memorandum for acquisitions), operating statements for the prior twelve months if available, a preliminary title report, and a brief investment thesis describing your plan for the property. For value-add or repositioning projects, we need a renovation or repositioning budget and scope description. For construction or major improvement projects, we need preliminary plans and a contractor budget. We do not require personal tax returns, personal financial statements, or DTI documentation for commercial property loans.
