CRE Bridge in Charlotte

Banking and finance first, logistics second. Bank of America and Truist are both headquartered in Charlotte, confirmed from their SEC filings, and Wells Fargo runs a very large employment hub here on the former Wachovia campus even though its headquarters is San Francisco. Financial activities employment across the metro reached 127,890 in June 2026, up 24.8% from 102,448 in June 2019, a government series with no gaps in its growth. Alongside finance, the region's own economic development body reports 89,000 logistics and distribution jobs, served by two Class I railroads, four interstates and three deep-water ports within 250 miles. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the other half of that logistics story: 53.6 million passengers and 574,193 aircraft operations in 2025, its second busiest year on record, which is the demand base under airport-adjacent hospitality, parking and warehouse product. We still do not quote a Charlotte cap rate, because a bridge loan here leans on the tenant and the lease rather than a market average.

Two different markets, and the office headline is misleading on its own. Cushman and Wakefield's Q2 2026 Charlotte MarketBeat puts overall office vacancy at 23.9%, down 200 basis points year over year off a historic high of 25.9% in Q2 2025, with overall asking rent at $35.23 per square foot. The same report has trophy space at 15.2% of inventory and only 5.3% vacant at $54.71 per square foot, 11 of 13 submarkets recording year-over-year vacancy declines, and Midtown/South End at 10.7%. Industrial in the same quarter is tighter: 7.4% vacancy, $8.67 per square foot net asking rent, and 7.2 million square feet under construction. Those are one firm's figures for one quarter rather than a government series, so we read them as context and underwrite your rent roll. Neither report publishes cap rates, and we will not invent one.

Five days is the published goal on a small project, and there is a paid lane if you need faster. Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement runs commercial plan review for the whole county. Its Small Commercial Plan Review stream covers upfit and renovation projects up to 10,000 square feet, mainly in the Business, Mercantile and Storage occupancy classes, with a published goal of completing the review within five days of plan acceptance, provided the project is permit-ready with every contractor selected. The standard OnSchedule stream budgets no more than eight hours of review time per trade and sets the appointment by the trade with the furthest lead time, so the slowest discipline sets your date. Express OnSchedule is the paid lane: $1,200.00 per hour for interior work and $1,500.00 per hour for exterior, due at the end of the appointment, with the permit fee itself paid before it starts. The county says Express compresses review into a single session and that permits can be issued within two business days in most cases, while noting that partial reviews such as shell, footing and foundation, single-trade or revisions may not land in two days. Treat it as a two-day-a-week resource: appointments run Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, cancellation needs 5 working days notice, and moving or cancelling one costs a non-refundable $100.00. Running the same project through Express and standard review at the same time can get the Express review cancelled and the team removed from the program for a year.

Yes. The county grades design professionals and the grade changes your place in the queue. The AE Pass Rate Incentives Program sorts architects and engineers into Superior, Successful, Not Yet Graded and Poor on the pass/fail rate of their most recent 7 to 14 plan review cycles, posts the grades quarterly with a 10-day window to appeal, and attaches incentives at the top and disincentives at the bottom, including a mandatory preliminary review. Preliminary Code Review is free and generally takes 1 to 2 weeks depending on how many trades are requested, and the county reports that design teams using it incur 25% fewer defects on final review, which is the county's characterization of its own study. Under Interactive Review, the sealholder gets two business days to answer a plans examiner's request by emailing revised bulletin drawings instead of taking a second full cycle. One detail worth checking before submittal: if the sealholder named on the application does not match the seal on the drawings, the county charges $31.60 and the project slips. On a Mecklenburg upfit, who seals the drawings is a schedule input, not just a fee.

Through a mass-appraisal model whose inputs the county publishes, and the next reset is 2027. Mecklenburg revalues every four years with values set to market as of January 1, and the county confirms the next revaluation is 2027. Its 2023 Uniform Schedule of Values sets out the vacancy, expense-ratio and overall capitalization ranges the county's appraisal staff used to value income property, built with a local appraisal firm from CoStar, Trepp, Real Data, CBRE and Cushman and Wakefield data plus questionnaires mailed to owners. Those are 2023 assessment model inputs, not market cap rates, and they should never be read as market cap rates. What they are is the published arithmetic behind your assessed value, which makes it checkable. Here is the bridge-loan point: in a non-revaluation year the county carries the prior value forward unless a North Carolina statutory trigger applies, and those triggers expressly include a physical change such as a permitted improvement, or a change in the legally permitted use. Pulling the permit that makes your value-add thesis work can itself revalue the asset mid-cycle. If you appeal, the burden is on you to show the tax value substantially exceeds fair market value, supporting documents are due no later than 45 days from filing, and the deadline is the Board of Equalization and Review's adjournment date, which moves every year. Talk to your CPA or a North Carolina property tax attorney before you fix the carry in your model.

Yes. Leasehold improvements are listable business personal property here. Mecklenburg defines them as lessee or tenant improvements made to leased real property, and lists them alongside machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures, computer equipment and software, and construction in progress. Everything owned as of January 1 is reported at historical installed cost, and the county applies the North Carolina Department of Revenue cost index and depreciation schedules to most of it. The listing deadline is January 31, an extension requested by January 31 moves it to April 15, and a late listing without an approved extension carries a 10% penalty on the taxes due. The county also states that businesses operating in Mecklenburg are audited by its contractor, Tax Management Associates, usually once every 5 years. Business personal property appeals run on their own clock, within 30 days of the initial notice of value under NCGS 105-317.1(c), not the real property calendar. If you are financing an upfit, budget for the listing as well as the construction.

Slower and more procedural than a Texas-style auction. North Carolina requires a hearing before the clerk of superior court before a power-of-sale foreclosure can proceed, and any sale stays open to upset bids for 10 days after the report of sale, with each upset bid restarting the clock. A contested Charlotte commercial sale can stay open for weeks past the auction date. For loans originally exceeding $100,000, the parties may waive the notice-and-hearing right by written, acknowledged instrument, which is worth discussing with your attorney at closing. Build that timeline into your bridge term rather than assuming a fast workout.

Twenty-five percent. Max leverage is up to 75% LTV, so on a $2,000,000 Charlotte building that is up to $1,500,000 from us and $500,000 from you (2,000,000 x 75% = 1,500,000). The term runs up to 24 to 36 months, interest-only. Value here comes off the tenant and the lease in front of us, not a Charlotte cap rate, because we do not have one we would stand behind. Subject to underwriting.

Yes. This program does bridge or cash-out. The same ceiling applies either way, up to 75% LTV, so what you can take out is the difference between that ceiling and what you still owe. Charlotte office is a two-speed market right now: Cushman and Wakefield put overall office vacancy at 23.9% in Q2 2026 against 5.3% for trophy space, so the value we can lend against depends on your asset and your rent roll rather than a market average. Subject to underwriting.

Up to $10,000,000, on a term of up to 24 to 36 months, interest-only. That is sized for the repositioning stretch, not for permanent debt. If a Mecklenburg upfit is part of the plan, build the review window into the term: the county's Small Commercial stream targets five days on a permit-ready project up to 10,000 square feet, and the paid Express lane runs Tuesdays and Wednesdays only. Subject to underwriting.