ST. PETERSBURG, FL - Bison Financial Group, Inc., a Bond Street Capital Regional Branch Office based here announces the closing of a $1,715,000 loan to acquire a free-standing building leased to a franchisee for Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar, the world's casual dining leader, with over 1,400 restaurants in forty-nine states and eight international countries. The lender was a community bank secured by Bison and their Indiana loan placement partner, Ray Krebs, also a Bond Street Regional Branch Office for Indiana.

"We were engaged by the borrower to secure financing on this transaction on November 25th and the deal needed to close by December 31, 2003", said Jared Repka, one of the principals of Bison, "Getting people focused on closing a real estate loan in the Holiday Season is no easy task. Our hat is off to our local partner, Ray "Monopoly Man" Krebs, a living legend in the Indiana community banking industry for fulfilling our borrower's wishes." Bison represented the borrower, a New York investor, and arranged a 10 year loan with a 25 year amortization that had an interest rate fixed for the first 5 years of 6.15%.

Bison works with investors and developers nationwide that invest in multi-tenant income producing properties and freestanding, single tenant facilities leased to credit tenants. Bison is a Regional Branch Office with Bond Street Capital, one of the nation's leading commercial real estate lenders with an expansive branch office system covering over 40 markets. "This loan in my mind validates the Bond Street business model because it represents a transaction where 2 Bond Street branches pooled their resources to get the deal done", said David Repka, President of Bison.