Real estate mogul making a big deal of small business.

Real estate mogul Fred Sands doesn't seem to fit the profile of your typical small business loan recipient, but he's pulled it off--sort of.

Sands' private equity firm, Vintage Capital LLC, received a small business investment company (SBIC) license late last month from the Small Business Administration. The license gives Vintage access to $118 million in federal money, which can be pooled with Sands' private capital and leveraged to make investments in "underserved markets and overlooked industries."

Of course, the SBIC program differs dramatically from regular SBA loans that are doled out to small business owners. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a roundtable discussion in Lynwood to announce Vintage's SBIC license and said that some of the money would go to Hispanic business owners.

The governor called the Vintage deal "a significant investment in small businesses in this state." Most of the investments made by Vintage SBIC are likely to go to companies with between $20 million and $250 million in revenues, however.

Sands, a regular contributor to Schwarzenegger's election campaigns, said the best part of the deal is its 10-year fixed interest rate of 5.5 percent to 5.9 percent.

"We basically borrow it, we leverage it, we put in a certain amount and the government puts in the rest," said Sands, adding that Vintage SBIC will make investments of between $5 million to $10 million in companies that are not subject to SBA review.