A bank or credit union keeps the loan. Recourse, deposits, and covenants are often part of the bargain, and the prepay is negotiated with that institution. A life company is permanent debt on core cash flow, often non-recourse, with a rate lock that is typically at application and leverage that is conservative on purpose. CMBS is a securitized loan, conduit or single-asset, used when proceeds or a non-recourse structure will not clear the other two boxes. Defeasance or yield maintenance, cash management, and a special servicer are part of living with CMBS. They are not fine print to skip.
Three Arizona cards name life company: the 2019 Phoenix dual-tenant industrial cash-out of $5,000,000, the 2019 Scottsdale Airpark flex refinance of $6,850,000, and the 2026 Tucson value-add multifamily loan of $28,000,000 at 80% LTC. None of those is a bank loan, and none is CMBS. The Phoenix industrial card in particular is not a conduit loan. The only bank-labeled card is a Midwest office acquisition, which is not Arizona proof for any of the three.
How to choose among the three on an Arizona file
Start with the business plan, not the slogan. Core industrial or retail with moderate leverage is often life company. A sponsor who will sign recourse and wants a lender to call is often a bank or credit union, including the owner-user buildings on the city bank pages. Proceeds that have to stretch, or a non-recourse structure the life company will not write, are the CMBS conversation. Stabilized apartments are usually Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or HUD, and we are not a DUS lender. CMBS on apartments is the exception.
We do not publish a spread, a cap rate, or a ranking of the three sources. Pricing is the market on the day of the quote. The rates page is context, not a lock. If none of the three boxes is open, the file may be bridge, with a takeout named, and that is a different page.
What the comparison is not
It is not a stack you get all at once. One senior loan has one holder. It is also not a claim that Capital Market Funds warehoused any of these loans. We originate the request and place it.
City bank pages, starting with Phoenix bank and Scottsdale bank, are where a portfolio hold is the question. Life company and CMBS program notes stay on their own URLs.