Madison Realty Capital Provide $115M Refi for Santa Cruz Hotel

Ensemble Investments has secured $115 million in senior debt to refinance La Bahia Hotel & Spa, a 155-room luxury waterfront hotel that opened last year in Santa Cruz, Calif., Commercial Observer can first report. 

Madison Realty Capital provided the debt, structured as a five-year, nonrecourse, floating-rate loan, while David Sonnenblick, principal and co-founder of Sonnenblick-Eichner, arranged the transaction. Newbond Holdings worked with Madison Realty Capital on the deal. 

Samir Tejpaul, managing director and head of investments at Madison Realty Capital, called La Bahia Hotel & Spa “an irreplaceable asset,” and noted in a statement that Santa Cruz County is bereft of upscale hospitality assets.

“The property’s beachfront positioning along Monterey Bay gives it a structural competitive advantage that is extremely difficult to replicate,” he said. 

Located at 215 Beach Street in Santa Cruz, La Bahia Hotel & Spa opened in September 2025 and features a distinctive Spanish Mediterranean architecture style. The hotel features nearly 14,000 square feet of meeting and event space and boasts an indoor-outdoor spa, a fitness center, an outdoor pool and hot tub, and three different restaurants. 

Sonnenblick emphasized that the hotel is positioned to carry a “distinct competitive advantage” in Northern California’s Monterey Bay submarket due to the lack of comparable luxury hospitality assets.  

“Madison Realty Capital, a seasoned hospitality lender, and Newbond were both drawn to the hotel’s irreplaceable location, exceptional barriers to entry, and its potential to be among the most successful beachfront properties in Northern California,” said Sonnenblick.

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.