MultiProbe has purchased the buildings that house its headquarters at 819 Reddick St and 425 N. Milpas St in Santa Barbara. The company had been leasing the buildings and made use of Small Business Administration (SBA) financing to buy the property for its own use. Francois DeJohn and Steve Hayes of Hayes Commercial Group represented MultiProbe in the transaction.

“This is a great example of how a company can leverage current lending conditions to become an owner-user,” DeJohn said. “SBA financing in combination with the current buyer’s market can make commercial buildings very affordable.”

MultiProbe was founded in 2001 by President/CEO Andrew N. Erickson and is a leading developer and manufacturer of nanoprobing tools for the semiconductor industry. The company makes the Atomic Force nano Prober (AFP), an imaging and probing tool used in diagnostic testing of semiconductor electronics. The company’s clients include Intel, IBM, Infineon and Toshiba.

“So far we are very happy with our decision and grateful to Hayes Commercial for making this happen,” Andrew Erickson said.

Since the collapse of the banking sector in 2008, financing has been scarce for real estate investors, and owner-users have played a much larger role in sales of commercial property in the Santa Barbara area. The availability of SBA loans at historically low rates has accelerated this trend.