Meet our Experts

Duane graduated from San Jose State University in 1994 with a B.S. in Business Finance and then became involved in the real estate industry with Norwest/Wells Fargo. In 1999, Mr. Hood moved into the commercial mortgage brokerage side of the business and has since brokered a wide variety of deals including $52.5mm in structured debt for the purchase of a portfolio of office buildings in Stanford Research Park, acquired $3.6mm of mezz debt for a $28mm ground-up apartment complex in the Natomas area of Sacramento and in 2002 he provided $8.2mm as the first CTL (Credit Tenant Lease) for Panattoni Development.

Prior to beginning his college career, Duane enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and proudly served our country for 10 years while attending college and during part of his tenure at Norwest/Wells Fargo. Among other distinctions, Duane received the Navy Achievement Medal during his service and was honorably discharged in 1998 as a Staff Sergeant.

Along with enjoying his time with his two children, Duane’s interests include golf, tennis and charitable organizations such as The Okizu Foundation and CSR Cares. Duane previously served as the Chairman of the Silicon Valley Young Life Charity Golf Classic presented by the San Jose Sharks in association with the San Francisco 49er Foundation.

 

Chris is an experienced commercial real estate lender for both construction and permanent loans. He joined forces with Duane in fall 2016.

Chris began his CRE career in San Francisco with Security Pacific National Bank in 1983. Since then, he has made over $1.8 billion in construction and term loans on both CRE and subdivisions throughout California and the western US, notably in the South Bay, while working for some of the best known banks the country. Chris has financed a broad variety of properties for his clients. Among those have been:

Apartment buildings of all sizes
Numerous biotech buildings, totaling over 770,000 s.f.
Many shopping centers and free-standing retail buildings, including half a dozen Walgreen stores
810,000 sq. ft. five-building build-to-suit headquarters for a major tech company in Sunnyvale
$103 million in financing for a highly successful resort condominium in Sun Valley, Idaho
Tract lending throughout California for subdivisions ranging in size from 8 units to 235 units
Special purpose properties, including self-­­­storage, theaters, truck terminals and amusement parks

Chris grew up in Chicago in a family of twelve children. He escaped by coming to California to study Japanese on a scholarship at Stanford University, then moved to Japan to teach English for a year. Chris is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is active in a number of trade associations, including the Bay Area Mortgage Association. He and his wife live in Woodside. They have two children now in their 20s.