ST. PETERSBURG, Florida- Bison Financial Group, a real estate advisory firm based in St. Petersburg, FL saw tremendous opportunity in a vacant 26.14 acre site surrounded by National retailers such as Lowe's, Home Depot, Publix, Kroger, Target and Kohl's in Smyrna, an up and coming submarket of Nashville, TN. National retailers would want to be in this growing, affluent retail hub.

With lenders decreasing their exposure on unimproved land Bison's client was running into walls. The borrower faced a tight timeline to acquire the last parcel of a land assemblage to build a 270,614 sf shopping center. Bison introduced a private lender to the transaction that closed 19 days later. According to David Repka, founder of Bison Financial Group, "This did not beat our record of 8 days to closing, but given the increasingly tight underwriting atmosphere we are proud to have delivered funding that accounts for over 90% of the pre-development cost structure. This was our 10th closing with this investor."

Bison has been engaged by the developer to secure a construction loan on the property. Bison is an advisor to a network of local, regional, national and international real estate entrepreneurs that buy and develop properties in Florida and select markets nationwide. Bison funds development/ value-added properties and stabilized income producing properties.