Developer Graham Cos. wanted to have more time than the typical 10 years to repay a $120 million loan. Property manager Cardinal Point Management LLC wanted to work with a flexible lender who can provide low interest for a $41 million loan. And Vutec Corp. wanted a lender willing to issue $3.3 million after the electronics company filed for bankruptcy protection.

They all turned to alternative lenders rather than more heavily regulated banks.

Phillip S. Sosnow.

“I think in this market, we are seeing a lot more of developers using alternative financing sources as opposed to going to the traditional banks because generally the alternative financing sources — private equity funds, for example — they don't have to follow as many of the regulations as traditional banks do,” said Phillip Sosnow, a real estate partner at Bilzin Sumberg in Miami. “They have a little more flexibility in being able to lend.”

While national banks are the main player in South Florida commercial real estate lending, some alternative lenders are gaining ground. Life insurance companies set a record in 2017 when they issued $80 billion in commercial loans nationally, 4 percent more than in 2016, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association report.

In South Florida, borrowers are opting for alternative lenders because of the flexibility they provide, experts said. From offering more competitive interest rates and long repayment schedules to higher loan-to-value ratios, alternative lenders are less restrictive and increasingly becoming the choice for commercial borrowers.

Stuart Wyllie.

Just ask Stuart Wyllie, head of Miami Lakes-based Graham Cos., which has developed much of the northwest Miami-Dade County town from its pioneer past as a family-owned dairy into an affluent suburb.

The company closed June 21 on refinancing for a 29-property commercial portfolio, picking New York-based global insurer American International Group Inc. as the lender.

“We went with the life insurance company primarily because of the deal we were looking for. This is a 15-year deal. Your normal banks and those kinds of lenders don't tend to go that long. Some do, but generally speaking they don't,” Wyllie said. “These life insurance companies have long liabilities, and they look to match these mortgages up with those liabilities.”

Vutec, a video projection screen maker, needed to refinance its industrial owner-occupied building at 11711 W. Sample Road in Coral Springs about two years ago. But the was a year after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which likely reduced the pool of lenders willing to work with the company.

“A lot of banks won't lend to companies that are either in bankruptcy or emerging from a bankruptcy,” said Brett Forman, president and CEO of commercial bridge lender Trez Forman Capital Group.