Assess sponsorship
Evaluate credibility, relevant experience, liquidity, and capacity to respond to adversity.
Inside the Credit Room
Construction Lending from Underwriting to Repayment
A practical, case-based course for the professionals who underwrite, approve, administer, and manage construction loans.
In preparation for institutional delivery. Inquiries are welcome; scheduling and delivery arrangements are confirmed individually.
Four daysThree hours per day
12 scheduled hoursIncludes daily breaks
Case-basedCalculations, discussion, and decisions
Institutional focusFor lending and credit teams
The credit decision at every stage
Follow the decision through the life of the loan.
Construction credit requires a defensible decision at each stage of the project. This course connects the original underwriting to equity funding, construction execution, disbursement controls, completion, and actual repayment.
Participants work through the evidence, calculations, and judgment needed as project risks change, with a shared approach across origination, credit, and administration.
What participants will practice
Credit analysis that leads to a clear next action.
Work through the questions that connect the project, the sponsor, the loan structure, and the bank’s decision.
Reconcile the project
Connect scope, budget, schedule, market assumptions, and repayment expectations.
Structure the funding
Translate underwriting conclusions into equity requirements, completion support, and usable controls.
Control the advance
Test draw requests, remaining costs, available funds, and emerging credit weaknesses.
Test repayment
Size permanent-loan proceeds and quantify gaps using LTV, DSCR, and debt yield.
Defend the recommendation
Specify supporting evidence, conditions, decision owners, and fallback actions.
Course progression
Four days following the credit decision.
Each day builds on the prior decision and tests what changes as the project moves toward repayment.
- Day one · Underwriting
Underwrite the sponsor, project, and repayment path.
Evaluate sponsorship, financial capacity, market feasibility, leverage, and the proposed exit. Separate verified facts from assumptions, and identify what must be resolved before commitment.
Practice: Sponsor capacity, sources and uses, and an initial credit recommendation.
- Day two · Structure
Structure a fundable construction plan.
Reconcile budgets, contracts, schedules, and third-party reports. Work through equity funding sequence, completion support, contingencies, interest reserves, and closing conditions.
Practice: Budget gaps, insurance-recovery timing, and interest-reserve sensitivity.
- Day three · Administration
Control advances and respond to changing risk.
Connect the approval to administration. Test draw evidence, retainage, stored materials, change orders, and cost to complete. Reassess sponsor support and escalate funding gaps.
Practice: Draw calculations, completion funding, and an adverse-credit update.
- Day four · Repayment
Move from completion to repayment.
Distinguish physical completion, legal closeout, stabilization, and cash repayment. Test refinancing and sale proceeds, evaluate extensions and workouts, and defend a committee recommendation.
Practice: Takeout gaps, collateral releases, and an integrated committee decision.
A continuing fictional case
Cedar Commons
Follow a multifamily development from the initial request through cost increases, funding pressure, completion, and a stressed repayment decision.
120Multifamily units
$30mOriginal project cost
$21mOriginal bank commitment
Teams calculate, challenge assumptions, and explain what the evidence supports. Additional exercises address insurance recovery, reserves, collateral releases, and portfolio liquidity.
All case names, amounts, and scenarios are fictional teaching assumptions.
Format and delivery
A structured, applied learning format.
- ScheduleFour days, three hours per day
- Each day170 minutes of learning + 10-minute break
- ActivitiesExercises and debriefs included
- PreparationNo required homework
The 12-hour scheduled format includes 11 hours 20 minutes of instruction and activities, plus 40 minutes of breaks. Institutional policies, authorities, and legal requirements remain specific to each organization.
Developed by
Derek P. Pollard
Managing Partner, LakeRock Capital
Derek’s experience spans enterprise CRE credit risk leadership, Federal Reserve examination, commercial real estate lending, and workouts.
The course brings these perspectives into practical questions about sponsorship, execution, governance, and repayment, while recognizing differences in institutional policy and decision authority.
View Derek’s professional backgroundFlexible delivery and customization
The full course is designed as four three-hour sessions. Shorter workshops and focused sessions can be tailored to your institution’s priorities, participant experience, and available time. Topics, case studies, and depth of coverage are agreed upon during planning.
Institutional course inquiries
Discuss the course for your team or institution.
Share your audience, approximate participant count, training goals, and preferred timing using the inquiry form below. LakeRock welcomes inquiries from institutions, associations, and professional education partners.
The course is being prepared for institutional delivery. An inquiry starts a discussion about scope, customization, scheduling, and delivery arrangements.
CONSTRUCTION LENDING COURSE
Tell Us About Your Team’s Training Needs
Share who will attend, the approximate group size, and what you want participants to learn. LakeRock will follow up to discuss course fit, customization, and delivery