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WHEELING, IL-A partnership between the Harp Group, based in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, and Oak Brook, IL-based Mid-America Development Partners has refinanced the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel and is adding New York City-based Marathon Opportunity Fund as an equity partner. The amount of the refinancing is $101 million and has a term of three years with two options for one-year extensions, says David Bossy, chairman of Mid-America. The loan to value is approximately 75%, he says. The loan is with JPMorgan Chase, which also was the lender for the project's $86-million construction financing.

The $100-million hotel opened last November at 601 N. Milwaukee Ave. The 16-story, 390,000-sf building has 412 rooms, 40,000 sf of meeting space, 16,000 sf of ballroom space and three restaurants--Osteria di Tramonto, Tramonto's Stead & Seafood and RT Lounge created by chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand. The hotel is operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts International, based in White Plains. The partnership of the Harp Group and Mid-America Development Partners decided to develop a hotel at the location because there were very few four-star, full-service hotels constructed in the Chicagoland area in the past 20 years, Bossy says. The site, at the intersection of Lake-Cook Road and Milwaukee Avenue, also "has great geographical coordinates," he says.

Bossy says they sold a 50% interest in the hotel to Marathon Asset Management. "We wanted to retain a long-term ownership," he says. "We had offers to sell it but we wanted to stabilize it." Partnering with Marathon Asset Management was a "compromise between selling and retaining 100% ownership," he says.