Commercial bridge loans for Los Angeles repositioning and buyouts.
Access equity or finance a project before permanent financing. Flexible commercial bridge across property types, with terms up to 24-36 months and loan sizes up to $10M. Above Measure ULA's threshold, a City of Los Angeles owner who cannot clear the tax hurdle on a sale often refinances or bridges instead. Older buildings carrying an open soft-story or non-ductile concrete retrofit order need bridge capital for that work too. Business-purpose only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
Typical figures, subject to underwriting and market conditions. Not a commitment to lend.
How it works
Use bridge capital to reposition an asset, buy out a partner, or stabilize before a refinance. We move quickly on commercial deals that banks find too time-sensitive. When the asset is stabilized, we refinance you out of the bridge and into long-term permanent debt, which we also place in house, so you have a clear exit from day one.
Why does Measure ULA push City of Los Angeles CRE owners toward bridge debt instead of a sale?
A seller above the threshold owes 4% or 5.5% of the entire gross sale price, and that hurdle has measurably cut the odds of trading. Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles tax on the gross price, applying to commercial, industrial and multifamily deals, not just housing. A UCLA Lewis Center study found the odds of a Los Angeles property selling above its ULA threshold fell by as much as 50% after the tax took effect, with transaction counts down roughly 30% to 50% in affected zip codes, concentrated in commercial, industrial and multifamily rather than single-family. An owner who cannot clear that hurdle on a sale often refinances or bridges the asset instead, buys time, and waits for a better exit. The tax is in force and has been upheld on appeal; proposed exemptions are drafts, not law. See the CRE bridge program. Subject to underwriting.
Does my Los Angeles County commercial deal even carry Measure ULA exposure?
Only if the property sits inside the City of Los Angeles; the county's other 87 incorporated cities and its unincorporated territory carry none of it, at any price. Los Angeles County contains 88 incorporated cities. A commercial asset in Long Beach, Torrance, Pasadena, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Inglewood, Lancaster, or unincorporated county territory is not subject to Measure ULA at any sale price. That means a portfolio straddling the city line has two different exit economics on otherwise similar assets: one parcel carries a real tax drag at sale, the other does not. Confirm which side of the line each asset sits on before you build the exit into your underwriting.
My building has an open soft-story or non-ductile concrete retrofit order. Can bridge financing fund the work?
Yes, that is exactly the kind of dated, mandatory capex a bridge loan is built for. City of Los Angeles Ordinance 183893 requires retrofit of pre-1978 wood-frame soft-story buildings of two or more stories with ground-floor parking or other open space and more than three units, and of non-ductile concrete buildings. Once an Order to Comply issues, the owner has two years to submit proof of retrofit or plans, 3.5 years to pull the permit, and seven years to complete construction; orders went out in phases starting 2016-05-02, largest buildings first. That is a real, dated obligation, not a discretionary upgrade, and it sits well inside our up to 24 to 36 month bridge term. Confirm the building's compliance status and order phase with LADBS before you size the request.
If I'm bridging a Los Angeles acquisition, can I underwrite it off the seller's current property tax bill?
No. The seller's tax bill tells you nothing about the carry you will owe once you close. Los Angeles County resets the assessed value to the purchase price the month after a sale, and a property held since the 1990s can carry an assessment far below market. The Assessor then issues a supplemental bill for the gap, prorated over the rest of the fiscal year, and a late-fiscal-year closing can generate two of them. Build your bridge-period carry off your own purchase price and Tax Rate Area, not off the number on the seller's disclosure. Talk to your CPA about your specific parcel.
If a Los Angeles County commercial bridge loan goes to default, how does California foreclosure work?
Non-judicial trustee sale, with a statutory floor of roughly four months from notice of default to sale, and no deficiency claim against the borrower once that sale happens. California Civil Code section 2924 requires at least three months between filing the notice of default and any notice of sale, then a further notice period of at least 20 days before the sale itself, putting the honest floor at about 111 to 120 days. Under CCP section 580d, once the trustee sale occurs no deficiency judgment can be rendered against the borrower on that debt, though the statute does not shield a guarantor. A lender can instead pursue judicial foreclosure to preserve a deficiency claim, at the cost of a lawsuit and a post-sale redemption period. Talk to your attorney about which track fits your structure.
Is Measure ULA being repealed or expanded to exempt new construction?
No. Measure ULA is in force today and has been upheld on appeal, and the exemptions being discussed are proposals, not law. On 2026-06-17 the Los Angeles City Council voted 9-5 to have the City Attorney draft two possible ballot measures, a 10-year exemption for newly constructed multifamily and mixed-use, and a separate exemption for Pacific Palisades owners selling after the January 2025 fire. Neither had qualified for a ballot as of this writing. A separate statewide initiative aimed at the November 2026 ballot would reach ULA-style taxes generally. Underwrite the tax as it stands today, not as a future draft might change it, and confirm current thresholds with your CPA before you price an above-threshold exit.
How much equity do I have to leave in a Los Angeles bridge deal?
At least 25% of value. We go to up to 75% LTV, up to $10,000,000, interest-only, on a purchase, a bridge or a cash-out. On a $4,000,000 Los Angeles County asset that is up to $3,000,000 from us with $1,000,000 of equity staying in the deal (4,000,000 x 75% = 3,000,000). For a City of Los Angeles owner who cannot clear the Measure ULA hurdle on a sale, that cash-out leg is often the whole reason to bridge rather than trade. Subject to underwriting.
Will a weak credit file kill a Los Angeles bridge request?
Rarely on its own. Commercial bridge is asset-based, so there is no minimum credit score. We do pull credit, but it carries far less weight than it would at a bank, and a weaker file is usually answered with lower leverage rather than a decline. There is no hard credit pull to start, and we do not ask for W-2s or pay stubs; the file qualifies off the property and the equity. Subject to underwriting.
My Los Angeles retrofit will take more than a year. Is the bridge term long enough?
Yes, the term runs up to 24 to 36 months. That is deliberately longer than a flip term, because the capex this county forces on older buildings is not a 6-month job. An owner served with a soft-story or non-ductile concrete Order to Comply gets 3.5 years to pull the permit and seven years to finish the work, and the construction itself sits well inside our outside term. Payments are interest-only across it, which keeps the carry down while the building is torn up and under-occupied. Confirm the building's order phase with LADBS before you size the request. Subject to underwriting.
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-15.
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