Santa Ana-based real estate brokerage Grubb & Ellis Co. has secured $18 million in financing, with half coming from Los Angeles-based Colony Financial Inc.
Colony is funding the loan with another undisclosed financier.
The financing could lead to a “potential larger strategic investment” by Colony, according to Grubb.
The investment firm has about six weeks left to negotiate terms of a possible investment.
Last month, Grubb hired San Francisco-based JMP Securities to explore a potential sale of the company or other options.
Grubb still is dealing with issues from its combination with Santa Ana-based NNN Realty Advisors Inc., which came near the peak of the market in 2007.
It was the surviving entity in the deal, which prompted a move of Grubb’s headquarters from Chicago to Orange County.
Last month, Grubb said it started a company—Daymark Realty Advisors—to manage the assets it got through the deal with NNN Realty.
Daymark is being run as a separate business and is based in Santa Ana.
It’s set up to manage about 8,700 apartments and 33 million square feet of commercial space bought through NNN Realty-sponsored tenant-in-common funds.
In 2009, Colony made a $206 million loan to Newport Beach-based homebuilder William Lyon Homes Inc.
The firm is led by founder and real estate investor Tom Barrack.
