Former Lender Buys L.A. Hotel at Foreclosure Auction for $68M
Yucaipa Companies had defaulted on a $100 million loan tied to the property earlier this year
By Nick Trombola July 31, 2025 6:35 pm
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The former lender of a prominent hotel along Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Koreatown has snatched up the property nearly six months after a default by the previous owner.
Corten Real Estate Partners paid $68 million for The Line LA, a 384-key hotel developed in 2014 by an entity tied to billionaire investor Ron Burkle and his firm Yucaipa Companies, according to Traded. The sale is the largest hotel deal in L.A. County so far this year.
Burkle had partnered with Andrew Zobler’s Sydell Group to acquire the site and redevelop it in the mid-2010s, yet Sydell sold its stake in the hotel to SoHo House — majority owned by Burkle — in 2021. Yucaipa had secured a $100 million refinancing loan from Corten Real Estate in 2022, CO reported at the time, but the owner ultimately defaulted on the debt earlier this year.
Representatives for Corten and Yucaipa did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hotels in L.A. County have garnered much interest from lenders and investors lately, particularly as the industry prepares for the upcoming 2028 Olympics and some of the soccer matches for the FIFA World Cup. Just earlier this week, Mesa West Capital provided a $55 million loan to Seaview Investors to refinance the recently renovated 186-room Burton House Beverly Hills. Ashford Hospitality Trust in February meanwhile landed $580 million to refinance 16 of its hotels, including the Beverly Hills Marriott, and Vici Properties invested $300 million into Cain International’s One Beverly Hills mega-resort project that same month.
Not everything is rosy in L.A.’s hotel industry, however. The L.A. City Council in May voted to significantly raise the hotel worker minimum wage through 2028, and Mayor Karen Bass signed the bill into law later that month, though an association of hotel owners and advocates filed a referendum petition against the law shortly after, delaying the start of its enforcement. If the petition is ultimately successful, the wage hike will go to a citywide referendum vote.
Yet some hotel owners aren’t willing to take that chance. Sun Hill Properties, which owns the 495-key Hilton Universal City just outside Universal Studios, pulled the plug on a planned 18-story expansion expressly because of the wage ordinance, Sun Hill President and CEO Mark Davis told CO.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
