ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - Bison Financial Group, Inc., a real estate advisory firm based here announces the closing of a $700,000 bridge loan to acquire the first phase of a 27 acre mixed use development project in Manatee County, Florida. At build out this project will have up to 200,000 sf of SmartSpace and feature five retail outparcels. The loan closed just 14 days after the lender received a detailed loan package. The site is located at the intersection of US-301 and Tallevast Road just North of University Parkway in the rapidly growing industrial corridor of Southern Manatee County just over the Sarasota County line.

The site is raw, undeveloped, vacant land without entitlements. The loan proceeds were used to acquire the property and facilitate the funding of soft costs to achieve municipal and government approvals. Bison represented the borrower, a development company based in Lakewood Ranch, FL with big plans for future projects on Florida's West Coast. "It is anticipated that approvals will be received and construction will commence in the 3rd Quarter of 2005", said Jared Repka, one of the principals of Bison, "With the approvals in hand we will be able to refinance this loan with a lower cost, institutional source of funding."

Bison worked closely with the developer, lender and legal team to close this loan in 14 days from the start of the deal. David Repka quipped, "our only disappointment is that we were not able to beat our long standing record of an 11 day closing that we set in 2000. Now that we have been named this lender's exclusive correspondent for the Southeast, maybe next time." The interest only loan features a floating interest rate based on the Prime rate and was placed with a private lender that Bison closed its first transaction with in 2000.

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 and numerous portfolio and capital markets programs.