Waterbridge, Continental Equities Seeking $251M Loan for Downtown LA Project
Waterbridge Capital and Continental Equities are seeking bridge financing for their 1.1-million-square-foot retail, hospitality and creative office property at 801 South Broadway in Los Angeles.
By Cathy Cunningham April 9, 2020 11:01 am
reprints
The industry may continue to take hits as the coronavirus pandemic continues, but big financing requests also continue to hit the market.
Waterbridge Capital and Continental Equities are seeking $251 million in bridge financing for their 1.1-million-square-foot retail, hospitality and creative office property at 801 South Broadway in Downtown L.A., Commercial Observer has learned.
CBRE (CBRE)’s James Millon, Tom Traynor, Ethan Gottlieb and Jesse Zarouk are leading the financing request, sources said. CBRE officials declined to comment.
Term sheets from interested lenders are due April 17th, with a late May closing in mind. The financing sought has a loan to value of 63 percent.
The debt will refinance a $213 million Starwood Property Trust loan provided to the borrowers in 2018 that is set to mature this year.
The new loan will also allow the developers to evaluate numerous possible alternatives for the 11-story property. Those alternatives include securing a construction loan and continuing with the redevelopment, entering into a joint venture partnership or a sale of the property.
The project is the largest historic redevelopment in Downtown L.A. The landmark Beaux-Arts building was originally built in 1907 as the Hamburger Department Store and features large floor plates and 24-foot ceiling heights. It was home to the May Company department store until the mid-1980s before serving as a mixed-use garment manufacturing facility with ground-floor retail.
Waterbridge Capital and Continental Equities have owned the asset since August 2014 and are now redeveloping it into a state-of-the-art mixed-use asset. The sponsors have already taken their redevelopment plans through the entitlement process, which involved historic landmark approvals.
The property features 114,000-square-foot floor plates, 25-foot retail ceiling heights, 20-foot office ceiling heights, 2.75-acre roof decks and 300 below-grade parking spaces. A boutique hotel will occupy the top floors of the property.
In addition to large-plate, open-plan creative office space, the property features over 1,000 feet of retail frontage adjacent to Sweetgreen, Shake Shack, Erewhon Market and COS.
Downtown L.A. has been the recipient of more than $30 billion of capital investment in the past ten years and the number of residential developments has more than doubled. As such, the sponsors aim to capitalize on the increasingly live-work-play dynamic in the area.
Officials at Waterbridge Capital didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Continental Equities officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
