West One completes £7.8m complex commercial bridging loan

Industry leading specialist lender, West One Loans, has successfully completed a £7.8m large, complex, commercial bridging loan to finance the redevelopment of a boutique hotel in Suffolk.

The borrower, a family-run limited company with extensive experience in property and commercial investment, needed £6m to refurbish the hotel and planned to secure against a large multi-unit commercial facility in London.

The large commercial premises in East London totalling over 115,000 sq ft had been owned by the family for nearly 20 years, across four titles. It was in a prime London location for residential development making the site very attractive.

The commercial site was up for sale and this was in negotiation at the time of application for the hotel finance. However, the sale of the estate was slow, creating a cash flow issue for financing the hotel development works.

There was further complexity as the borrower was a limited company that was owned by a parent company, whose majority shares were in trust. This added legal complications that the West One underwriters had to navigate. The finance was taken over a 24-month term to allow additional time for the negotiations and legal due diligence for selling a site of this scale.

This case from submission to completion took less than a month. Given the complexities of the applicant structure, property class and legal standing it really showcased the lender’s experience and dedication to delivery through collaborative working with its intermediary partner.

The introducing broker, Scott West from City Finance Brokers, commented: “There are often complications when dealing with large commercial premises – particularly when involving a trust.

“West One was immediately able to see the commercial strengths to the case and take a pragmatic view. They moved swiftly to enable completion within four weeks from instruction, allowing the client to commence refurbishment works considerably sooner than freeing up equity from elsewhere.”

James Chisnall, director at City Finance Brokers, added: “It was a pleasure to see the collaboration between our newest team member, Scott West, and Matt Watson of West One. While the deal was complex, the way Scott and Matt handled it was seamless and resulted in a great gain to the client.”

Nick Jones, sales director, bridging at West One Loans, confirmed: “This is a great example of how clear communication from the outset, between broker and lender, allowed us to tailor a facility over a complex package to meet the needs of the borrower.

“The main challenge for the client was managing cashflow across various business interests in multiple industries, our short-term facility eased this problem whilst waiting for other elements to fall into place.”