Fident Capital secured $3.51MM of non-recourse construction financing for the ground-up development of a 17,301 SF small-bay industrial warehouse in the northern Deer Valley/Pinnacle Park submarket along Phoenix’s I-17 corridor. The borrower, a repeat Fident client, is a vertically integrated investment and development firm with 200,000+ SF of Phoenix industrial holdings and a complementary Southern California multifamily pipeline. A Salt Lake City–based private lender provided 15-month, interest-only, with no exit fee at 65% LTC – loan proceeds that exceeded the borrower’s request and minimized the cash equity need.
The assignment’s primary challenge was aligning the capital structure around a nuanced land basis. The sponsor acquired this 1.2-acre parcel as part of a 2022 purchase of the adjacent 15,000 SF warehouse, effectively carrying the development site at a sunk cost allocated to a fully stabilized, cash-flowing asset. The borrower got the incumbent lender to release the development site from the loan’s collateral without a paydown and Fident’s task was to ensure prospective lenders recognized the borrower’s embedded land equity, crediting them equity based upon the land value not some low basis allocation based upon a 3 year old acquisition.
Fident’s analysis framed the land contribution through current market value supported by submarket comparables rather than historical cost, enabling lenders to underwrite to the economic reality of the sponsor’s position. A second complexity arose during closing: the winning lender’s $10–$15/SF tenant improvement underwriting exceeded the sponsor’s estimate of $5/SF which aligned with their recent experience and leasing broker feedback, a gap that materially affected required equity. Fident facilitated a structured dialogue between the sponsor’s leasing team and the lender’s credit group, ultimately bridging the underwriting to a level that reduced the cash equity requirement while preserving credit comfort.
Despite an extended closing cycle driven by multi-party legal review, Fident engaged the lender through an established relationship that proved decisive. The private lender cited confidence in the sponsor’s broader program, which Fident’s portfolio-level context made visible. The financing closed without a third-party appraisal, with the lender relying on an internal evaluation informed by prior diligence on the adjacent asset, producing meaningful cost and timeline savings.
Fident is pleased to continue managing this client’s portfolio financing, advancing their Phoenix industrial program and Southern California multifamily strategy.
