Light industrial & warehouse mortgages.
Warehouses, light industrial, flex space and strata bays across BC and Alberta — investment or owner-occupied, from a single bay to a distribution building.
Industrial is the asset class everyone wants and few underwrite well. Lenders love the fundamentals — scarce land, low vacancy, durable demand — but every file runs the same gauntlet: an appraisal that credits generic functionality over your specialized fit-out, and an environmental review that can stall a clean approval over what a previous owner did decades ago. Our job is to package the building's utility, get ahead of the environmental story, and — for owner-users — put your company's cash flow to work so rent becomes equity.
From a single strata bay to a distribution building.
Storage, logistics and distribution buildings — single-tenant or multi-bay.
Production, assembly and service space, often with showroom or office components.
Individual strata units — the entry point for owner-users across Metro Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
The building your company manufactures or operates from — underwritten on the business plus the property.
Multi-tenant industrial held for income — small-bay is among the most sought-after commercial stock.
Cranes, heavy power, coolers, wash bays and yards — features generic lenders struggle to value.
Repricing a maturing loan, or unlocking equity from a building your business already owns.
Vacancy, conversion, or an urgent close funded short-term, refinanced at stabilization.
Heavy, purpose-built plants have their own page — heavy industrial mortgages. Oilfield service shops and yards too — oilfield shop & yard financing.
The whole financing package, not just the building.
When a company buys its premises, the mortgage is one piece. We read the financials first, and more often than not the operating line is too small for the business, the credit cards are too small for the month, the purchase comes with leasehold improvements nobody has planned to fund, the equipment sits on a handful of loans at a handful of rates, and there is a tax balance or a supplier that has waited too long. All of it, and whatever else the statements show, is arranged as one package with one set of approvals, so the day the business owns the bay or the building it is not starved of working capital.
The anchor: the bay or the building, underwritten on the business that will run from it, with the lender lanes compared below.
Reading the financials usually shows the line of credit was sized years ago for a smaller company. It is resized in the same package: arranged with the lender financing the building, or kept where it is and raised where that bank will do it.
Fuel, parts, travel and suppliers run on cards, and an operating card that maxes out every month is a cash-flow problem dressed as a convenience. Limits are set to the business, not to a branch default.
Racking, the power upgrade, the loading doors, the coolers, the mezzanine and the office build-out: the work that turns a shell into your plant. Funded as a leasehold-improvement loan beside the mortgage instead of out of the company's cash, so the purchase does not drain the money the business needs to operate.
The forklifts, the CNC machines, the compressors and the delivery vans. New equipment is financed alongside the building through our equipment-finance partners, and the down payment on it often comes out of the real estate.
We go through every loan, lease and card the business already pays: the old equipment loans, the vendor financing, the line opened in a tight year. Where consolidating them into the package lowers the monthly outlay, it is done at the same time, and the cash flow that frees is often the biggest saving in the whole file.
A CRA balance that fell behind, GST or payroll remittances in arrears, suppliers waiting on aged invoices: where the financials show them, they can be paid out from the package so the slate is clean on funding day.
That is the usual list, not the whole one. Whatever else the financial statements show that is costing the business cash flow it does not need to spend goes on the table in the same read.
Seen on a real file: a childcare operator opening its third centre, where the branch offered a $2,000 card increase and the same bank's commercial division approved roughly $1.1 million. Read the case study →
Three ways to fund an industrial property.
Investment, owner-occupied, or bridge — we size every file against all three lanes before recommending one.
The core lane for investment industrial. Functionality drives value: ceiling height, loading, power, and yard — an appraiser's view of who else could use the building matters as much as who's in it today.
Rent becomes equity: the lender blends your company's cash flow with the real estate so a growing operator can own its building instead of paying a landlord's mortgage.
Industrial's most common private trigger is environmental: a Phase II under way, or historic contamination being remediated. Private capital carries the property through; conventional refinances it once the file is clean.
Rates, ratios, and leverage are typical ranges for illustration — last reviewed July 2026 — and depend on the asset, the sponsor, and market conditions. Run the numbers with our commercial mortgage payment calculator and rent-vs-own-your-shop calculator, then we confirm your file's numbers in writing.
Case studies are published as files close. Read the files on record →
Common industrial-financing questions.
How much down payment do I need for an industrial building or warehouse?+
Investment industrial typically finances to 65% of value — roughly 35% down. Owner-occupied premises reach about 75%, and on qualifying owner-occupied deals the federal CSBFP/small-business program can finance up to 100% of eligible costs, though it's dollar-capped (real-property term loans max at $1,000,000 within a $1,150,000 per-borrower limit) rather than percentage-based.
What do lenders look at on an industrial property?+
Functionality first: clear ceiling height, dock and grade loading, power service, column spacing, truck access, and yard. A building that works for many users is easy to lend on; a building purpose-built around one company's process gets a harder look — the lender is quietly asking who'd occupy it next.
Why is environmental review such a big deal on industrial files?+
Because the site's history follows the title. Industrial properties carry the highest environmental scrutiny of any asset class — a Phase I is effectively universal, and past uses like fuel storage, plating, or solvents commonly trigger a Phase II investigation. Unresolved findings stall conventional lenders entirely, which is when private capital bridges the file through remediation.
Can my company buy the building it operates from?+
Yes — that's the owner-occupied lane, typically when your business occupies the majority of the space. The lender underwrites your company's cash flow together with the property, leverage runs stronger than investment industrial, and your rent payment starts building your own equity instead of your landlord's.
How are industrial strata bays financed?+
Like commercial condos: the lender reviews the strata corporation's finances and bylaws alongside your covenant, and use restrictions matter — a bylaw that blocks your operation blocks the loan. Strata bays are the standard entry point for owner-users, and lender appetite varies enough that shopping the file makes a visible difference.
Do cranes, heavy power, and coolers add lending value?+
Less than they cost — most lenders value the shell and location, treating specialized improvements conservatively because the next tenant may not need them. Expect the appraisal to credit generic functionality more than process-specific fit-out, and plan equity accordingly.
What happens if the building is vacant when I buy it?+
Conventional lenders underwrite in-place income, so a vacant investment building usually means a bridge first: private or short-term capital against the property's value while you secure a tenant (or move your own business in), then a refinance once income is in place.
How long does an industrial mortgage take to close?+
Plan on 45–75 days conventional — environmental review is usually the critical path on industrial — and 10–25 days for a private bridge with an appraisal in hand.
Financing an industrial property? Have these ready.
On industrial, the environmental story and the building specs set the pace — get both on the table on day one.
- Building specs — clear ceiling height, loading doors (dock vs grade), power service, bay sizes
- Leases with terms and renewal options, or your own company's occupancy plan
- Operating statements for the property, last 2 years
- Business financial statements (owner-occupied) — last 2 years
- T1s/T2s and Notices of Assessment for all sponsors
- Personal net-worth statement per sponsor
- Environmental Phase I — and any prior Phase II or remediation records; industrial sites are the highest-scrutiny asset class
- Yard details — fencing, paving or gravel, storage use, and any fuel tanks
- Purchase contract or existing mortgage payout statement
Have a building in mind? Score it first.
Tell us about the property — specs, tenancy or your own occupancy plan, and the site's history — and we'll tell you which lane fits before you spend a dollar on reports.