$3.38M Purchase Bridge: Office Building Leased to a Licensed Dispensary
San Diego, CA, 2019 — A multi-state cannabis operator was buying the San Diego office building its licensed dispensary occupied. Three things put bank financing out of reach at once: a complex corporate structure, large net operating losses, and the tenant use itself. Helvetica funded a $3,380,000 purchase loan on the collateral.
The Borrower's Problem
The buyer was a cannabis operator running licensed dispensaries across several states, and was preparing for a public listing on the Canadian Stock Exchange. It wanted to own the San Diego office building one of its dispensaries already occupied rather than continue leasing it.
No bank would write the loan. Federally regulated lenders will not finance real estate with a cannabis tenant, whatever the position under state law. On top of that, the borrower carried the corporate structure of a company assembled by acquisition and the large net operating losses typical of a cannabis business scaling toward a listing. Any one of the three would have been enough for a decline.
The Helvetica Solution
Helvetica underwrote the real estate. An office building in San Diego holds its value on its own merits — location, condition, and what another occupier would pay for it — independent of who is in it today. That is the question a bridge lender can answer when a bank's credit policy has already ended the conversation.
A $3,380,000 first mortgage funded the purchase on a short timeline. The exit was genuinely uncertain: a company heading for a public listing in a sector where conventional refinancing options were, and remain, limited. Helvetica sized the loan so the collateral carried the risk rather than the borrower's forecast.
Benefit to the Borrower
- Acquired the building its own operation occupied, on schedule
- Financed despite a decline that was structural, not credit-specific
- Corporate complexity and operating losses did not disqualify the deal
- Underwritten on the property rather than the business plan
- Closed quickly, to a purchase contract's timeline
Deal Highlights
- First mortgage of $3,380,000, purchase financing
- Office building in San Diego, CA, leased to a licensed cannabis dispensary
- Multi-state operator preparing for a Canadian Stock Exchange listing
- Complex corporate structure and substantial net operating losses
- Not bankable at any conventional lender
- Collateral-led underwriting where the exit could not be relied upon
Bank declined a deal the collateral supports?
Helvetica funds bridge and purchase loans from $300K–$10M+ on investment and business-purpose real estate, typically closing in 3–10 days following receipt of all requested documentation. Eligibility varies by property type, use and jurisdiction.
