A community bank, in this comparison, is a depository whose credit committee sits in one metro or a handful of Arizona counties and whose hold size is sized to that capital. A regional bank is a depository with a multi-state footprint and a written credit policy that can hold a larger Arizona commercial mortgage and still keep it on the portfolio. Neither description is a ranking, and neither name on a term sheet is Capital Market Funds.
Credit unions sit beside both. They are portfolio lenders with membership rules. They are not a third brand of bank, and this firm is not a credit union. The page for that search is the credit-union lander. No Arizona tombstone is labeled community bank, regional bank, or credit union.
What actually changes between the two quotes
Loan size is the first split. A smaller owner-user building in Gilbert, Sun City, or a Mesa flex bay often fits a community bank or a credit union and never needs a regional hold. A larger Chandler or Phoenix industrial mortgage may clear a regional bank's policy and miss the community bank's legal lending limit. We ask the limit before we congratulate anyone on a term sheet.
The rest of the comparison is recourse, deposits, the covenant package, who has to approve an exception, and how the prepay works if the sponsor sells in year three. A community bank may decide faster because the committee is local. A regional bank may be slower and still be the only portfolio lender that can hold the proceeds. Speed is not quality. We write down which one the file needs.
What we will not do with bank names
We do not publish a list of preferred banks, a league table, or a claim that one Arizona institution is the best CRE lender. Institutions change appetite by quarter. A name that fit the last file can pass on this one. The work is the comparison on this asset.
Life company and CMBS are the non-bank permanent alternatives. That choice is bank versus life company versus CMBS. City pages start at Phoenix bank and Scottsdale bank.