November 19, 2024
A mezzanine loan is a type of commercial real-estate financing that is secured by an equity pledge in the entity that owns the underlying real estate. So if A owns the Property and B owns 100% of A, the borrower on a mezzanine loan will be B, and the collateral for the loan will be B’s 100% equity ownership of A.
While mezzanine debt is typically riskier for a lender because the pledged equity is necessarily subject to the mortgage loan, upon default, a mezzanine lender does not need to file a judicial foreclosure action to foreclose, and can instead do a foreclosure on the equity pledge under the Uniform Commercial Code, or U.C.C. This type of foreclosure is much faster—typically done in 60 to 90 days—and does not require the filing of a lawsuit.
In this short video, Schlam Stone & Dolan partner Joshua Wurtzel discusses how a U.C.C. foreclosure works and what a mezzanine lender has to do and consider to avoid successful borrower challenges to the process.