Member Meeting Talks TICs

By Michael Sullivan, Plan C Board Member
March 3, 2006

Our February membership meeting featured Mark Skolnick and Paul Breakstone from Circle Bank, the bank that pioneered the new “individual” TIC loans that are promising to revolutionize homeownership in San Francisco.

After an intro from Paul about Circle Bank (a community bank based in Marin County), Mark explained the basics about this innovative loan product: when a building is sold as TICs, each unit owner gets a separate loan, secured only by those owners’ interest in the TIC agreement for the building.

Circle Bank is making both acquisition loans (loans to building owners to allow them to convert their buildings to TICs) as well as refinancing loans for buildings that are already TICs. Some of Circle Bank’s criteria: all members of the building’s TIC group must participate in the individualized TIC loans; the maximum loan amount is $3.3 million; fixed and variable rates are available; and generally there is a maximum of 8 units per building (exceptions can be made on some of these criteria). Click here for all of the details on Circle Bank’s loan criteria and terms/conditions.

Response to Circle Bank’s individual TIC loan program has been overwhelming, and although the bank originally set aside $20 million for the loans, that cap has been lifted; there is currently no limit on the total number of loans or dollars available for the individual TIC loan program. Other banks are listening: recently, another local bank began offering individual TIC loans on 2 to 4 unit buildings, making a total of three banks that have gotten into the act.

Our second presentation was from Kim Barnes, who recently led a community-based effort to revitalize Lafayette Park in Pacific Heights. Barnes, who recently changed careers and joined Hill & Co. as a real estate agent, initially found herself with lots of time on her hands – and found her neighborhood park in sad shape.

Although she had no prior experience in “community activism”, she gradually enlisted neighbors from surrounding blocks – people who in most cases didn’t even know one another – to do the things that the park needed: trimming, cleaning, pruning, carting away – and helped turn the park into the jewel that it had the potential to be.

“Friends of Lafayette Park” is now a regular phenomenon, bringing neighbors together who never knew one another, and creating a community where none existed before. Kim’s work is an inspiration to all of us that we can make a difference in our neighborhoods!