Our Story

Mercantile Commercial Capital, LLC (MCC) threw open its doors in February 2003 as a licensed mortgage lender specializing in the SBA 504 Loan Program. The company was based in Maitland, Florida and began as a sister company of NAI Realvest Partners, Inc. Realvest"s Founder and President George Livingston, COO Geof Longstaff and CFO Chris Hurn, launched MCC with Chris serving as President and CEO, Geof as Chairman of the Board and George as a Board Member. These entrepreneurs felt there was a strong need for the promotion of such a beneficial loan program within the commercial real estate industry. Their combined experience in the lending, real estate and consulting fields gave them a unique perspective to note how glaringly needed these loans were for owners of small to mid-sized businesses.

MCC partners Chris Hurn (left) and Geof Longstaff (right).

The company was expressly created to focus exclusively on providing 90% loan-to-cost financing for small to mid-sized business owners to purchase or construct commercial real estate. With this type of lending, business owners can obtain the highest cash-on-cash return available with financing that is cash flow and capital sensitive to their businesses.

MCC hired its first employee in March of 2003 and set out to educate the Orlando market, the entire state and then . . . who knows. Once Florida small business owners were more educated about 504 Loans, MCC began to grow even faster as business poured in. That summer, the company expanded by opening a second office, this time in the Tampa marketplace. With the SBA 504 Loan Program"s requirement that borrowers create one new or retain one job for every $50,000 in government guaranteed financing, MCC helped create 278 jobs in its first 12 months (July 2003 – June 2004) of loan closings. In the last five months of 2003 alone, MCC closed 13 loans for projects worth over $10.5 million.

MCC moved to Altamonte Springs in January of 2004 to help alleviate its need for more space. Geof joined the company full time as a “working” Chairman, and he and Chris hired more employees for their Orlando office. In February of 2004, the company began another branch office in Miami and in less than four months, placed another office in the Chicago market, making the fourth MCC office in only 17 months of operations. Quoted in the Orlando Business Journal, Geof commented, “There is something innate about owning real estate, like Americana and apple pie. It allows these businesses to control their own destinies.” To again accommodate its growth, MCC moved to larger space in November of 2004 for the second time that calendar year. In 2004, the company closed 24 loans for projects worth nearly $28 million.

In 2005 MCC had a total of 47 loans closed totaling over $48 million and had over 12 full time employees.   Also, in 2005 MCC was awarded “Best Places to Work” by the Orlando Business Journal.  2006 was another busy year for MCC.  The company had over 54 closed loans worth a total of $76million.   MCC was also awarded the 2006 NADCO “Banker of the Year” award, 2006 SBA Financial Services Champion for Florida and the twelve-state Southeast Region (District IV) and once again awarded “Best Places to Work” by the Orlando Business Journal.   Then in 2007 MCC had 48 closed loans worth over $102 million and 18 full time employees.

MCC has been named the largest SBA 504 lender in the North Florida SBA District Office (encompassing the Panhandle through Central Florida), the second largest SBA 504 lender in the state, SBA Financial Services Champion, Banker of the Year by NADCO (the industry"s only trade organization) and is the only lender in the country to exclusively specialize in offering SBA 504 loans. The enormous growth that the company has experienced earned it a spot on the 2007 Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America. The table below shows MCC"s growth and progress over the last several years. The company will only grow faster as it expands into local markets across the country. Chris is optimistic that, “as long as our country continues to foster calculated risk-taking, innovation and liberties (the hallmarks of entrepreneurship), more small businesses and their jobs will be created which will lead naturally to the new American Dream of owning commercial property.” In the 63 months MCC has been in business, they have closed 201 loans for projects worth over $329 million and helped to create over 2,363 new jobs.