A principal at a San Francisco-based commercial mortgage brokerage with experience in alternative funding sources will be part of a finance panel discussion at the Business Journal's upcoming Commercial Real Estate Networking Reception next month.

The event will be held May 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma. Registration costs $55 a person or $600 for a table of 10. The deadline is May 7. To register, call 707-521-5264 or visit www.NorthBayBusinessJournal.com

San Rafael resident Kurt Scheidt is one of three principals at Kearny Capital Partners. The 6-year-old firm taps finance sources such as securitized mortgages, insurers, credit companies and traditional lenders to arrange fixed- and floating-rate, construction, bridge and mezzanine financing. Kearny also has a receivership advisory division.

The firm has closed 150-plus debt and equity deals totaling $2.5 billion since it formed in 2004. That includes the 2005 refinancing of the 128,000-square-foot office building originally built for Nokia in Northpoint Corporate Center in southwest Santa Rosa. Construction financing was replaced with a 10-year nonrecourse loan through a life insurance company. Mr. Scheidt's specialty is nonrecourse, high-leverage bridge debt. He plans to provide an update on such alternative sources in a panel discussion of the challenging real estate finance market.

Also part of the discussion, themed "Where is the money?" will be Sherrill Stockton, senior vice president and U.S. Small Business Administration loan manager for Exchange Bank of Santa Rosa. She intends to examine the local market for such loans and the outlook for small-business financing. The third member of the panel will be Brian Reed, executive vice president and chief credit officer for First Community Bank, also of Santa Rosa. He is set to talk about factors affecting local banks' ability to lend.

Moderating the panel will be Joan Woodard, president and chief executive officer of Santa Rosa-based Simons & Woodard, which has designed and developed a number of Santa Rosa-area commercial properties, including Northpoint.