TAMPA - Franklin Street Real Estate Services announced a note sale of a two-property multifamily portfolio. The communities are in Northeast Tampa. The notes had an original face value of $6,180,000, originated in late 2006. The properties collateralized by the notes are Regency Palms Apartments, 89 units at 4113 E. Linebaugh Ave. and Oasis Apartments, 61 units at 1503 E. 142nd Ave.

Franklin Street Partners Darron Kattan, Bob Goldfinger and Kevin Kelleher represented both parties.

TAMPA - Franklin Street Real Estate Services announced a note sale of a four-property multifamily portfolio. The communities are in North and Central Florida. The note had an original face value of $9,165,000, originated in December of 2004. The properties were in Gainesville, Ocala, Havana and Starke, and comprised a total of 356 units. Franklin Street Partners Darron Kattan, Bob Goldfinger and Kevin Kelleher represented the existing owner and, together with Alfredo Guardado of Assistance Realty International, assisted all parties in the sale. The buyer was a private partnership.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS - Mercantile Capital Corp. reports it closed on five commercial property loans worth more than $11.6 million in total project costs in January. The firm ranks as one of the largest providers of U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loans in the nation.

Christopher G. Hurn, president and chief executive officer of Mercantile Capital Corp., said Mercantile Capital’s largest project in January was $4.7 million for the construction and improvements of an existing convenience store in Las Vegas.

TALLAHASSEE - Florida’s banks are looking forward to 2010 as an economic climate that will allow more real estate lending, according to Alex Sanchez, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association.

Despite public perception, Sanchez said, banks here have been more than willing to lend during this economic downturn - but regulatory oversight has impeded that in many cases.

“We’ve always been in business. Our doors are open. We are lending as we speak. Obviously the environment is not where we want it to be. We’re not happy with the regulatory environment that exists,” he said.

ORLANDO - Canyon Capital Realty Advisors of Los Angeles, Calif., funded a $24.2 million senior bridge loan to Falcon Square Apartments LLC for the acquisition of Falcon Square, a 379-unit, Class A apartment complex located three miles north of Walt Disney World in Orlando.

LAS VEGAS - Fourth-quarter 2009 commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations were 12% higher than during the same period last year and 15% higher than during the third quarter of 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations.

“Commercial and multifamily mortgage originations picked up in the fourth quarter, but remain at a low level in absolute terms,” said Jamie Woodwell, vice president of commercial real estate research at the MBA.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association released the results of its 2009 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Survey of Loan Maturity Volumes. The survey indicates that the volume of commercial and multifamily mortgage debt maturing in 2010 and 2011 is relatively low.

Of the $1.45 trillion balance of outstanding mortgages held by non-bank investors, only 13% of the total ($183.9 billion) will mature in 2010 and 7% ($99.8 billion) in 2011. The survey also found that maturities vary considerably by the type of investor holding the loan.