Santa Barbara-based MultiProbe has purchased the buildings that house its headquarters at 819 Reddick St. and 425 N. Milpas St. in Santa Barbara.

MultiProbe develops and manufactures nanoprobing tools for the semiconductor industry. The high-tech company had been leasing the buildings and used Small Business Administration loans to buy 18,673 square feet of space for $3.95 million.

Hayes Commercial Group agents Francois DeJohn and Steve Hayes represented MultiProbe.

“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 buyers’ market can make commercial buildings very affordable.”

President and CEO Andrew Erickson founded the company in 2001. His company developed the atomic force nano prober, an imaging and probing tool used in diagnostic testing of semiconductor electronics that’s used by clients such as Intel, IBM, Infineon and Toshiba. The AFP measures and evaluates advanced circuitry through high-resolution imaging.

In terms of commercial real estate, owner-users have played a much larger role in sales of commercial property in the Santa Barbara area especially because of the SBA loans’ historically low rates, according to Hayes Commercial Group.

“So far we are very happy with our decision,” Erickson said.

— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.