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Surging Subprime Lender ResMae Ups HQ Size

Even before moving into its new headquarters in Brea, a startup subprime lender nearly has doubled its lease to 130,000 square feet.

The move shows that the real estate boom hasn’t sputtered yet, at least for some specialty mortgage lenders who account for many of the biggest lease deals and are driving new office construction in Orange County.

In fall, Residential Mortgage Assistance Enterprise LLC said it planned to lease 80,000 square feet of a five-story building under construction in Brea by Olen Properties Corp. of Newport Beach.

Now the lender said it exercised its option to take the entire building at 6 Pointe Drive earlier this year.

“Our loan volumes are approaching $600 million a month,” said Edward Resendez, co-chief executive of the lender, which goes by ResMae Mortgage Corp.

ResMae did $2.5 billion in loans last year, and should more than double that this year, according to the company.

Resendez said the company’s revenue last year was about $60 million.

Subprime lenders make loans to borrowers with imperfect credit. They have been buoyed by a strong housing market. As home prices rise, some owners are swapping their credit card debt for a second mortgage at a lower interest rate.

The company employs about 350 workers in the county, mostly at its current headquarters, 3350 E. Birch St. in Brea. The company leases 40,000 square feet there and 15,000 square feet nearby, Resendez said.

ResMae has 700 workers nationwide.

The new building is set to be done late this year or in January, according to Olen.

Resendez founded the company with partners Jack Mayesh, chairman and co-chief executive, and Bill Komperda, a silent investor.

In 2003, they received $25 million in venture funding from New York-based TH Lee Putnam Ventures, a private equity firm affiliated with Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, and Putnam LLC, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Corp.

The founding partners have subprime lending experience. They previously headed Orange-based Long Beach Financial Corp., a former Ameriquest unit that went public in 1997 and was bought in 1999 by Washington Mutual Inc.

ResMae’s lease is one of three such deals set to drive office construction.

Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. plans a 20-story, 600,000-square-foot tower at its sprawling Park Place office campus in Irvine. Subprime lender New Century Financial Corp., based in Irvine, is set to take a big chunk of that building, according to the company.

In another mortgage-related deal, packing company Scholle Corp. plans to build a seven-story tower in Irvine to be entirely occupied by Newport Beach-based Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc.

Impac is a real estate investment trust that invests in loans to borrowers with credit scores between prime and subprime. Scholle initially planned a five-story building at its headquarters on Jamboree Road near Fairchild Road, but upped it two floors with the Impac deal.

The mortgage company leased 200,000 square feet. In all, Scholle plans a 450,000-square-foot office park.

OC’s housing market appears to have recovered from its summer lull. But national sales of new homes and apartments fell by 17.6% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.84 million, according to the Commerce Department.

Mortgage rates ticked up earlier this year amid signs of inflation. The picture is mixed, however, with soft economic data offsetting some of the concern over inflation.

Still, the Federal Reserve Bank is expected to continue raising its key short-term rate, currently at 2.75%. If long-term rates don’t rise soon, that could put subprime lenders at risk. The reason: Short-term rates are catching up to long-term rates and investors prefer shorter, less risky loans.

Companies such as ResMae and New Century package their loans in $1 billion pools and sell them as bonds to Wall Street investors.

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