Cain, OKO Seek $5B to Complete One Beverly Hills

Cain International and OKO Group, which earlier this year secured $2B in financing and broke ground on the One Beverly Hills ultra-luxury resort, now is seeking twice as much debt to meet its project deadline.

The partners are in the market for $5.25B in financing, aiming to complete most of the mega-project in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The refinancing will replace a $2B loan package originated this year by JPMorgan Chase, and it will finance the construction of one of the most expensive U.S. resort developments at a time when lenders remain cautious about backing CRE developments, Bloomberg reported.

According to the report, the partners are seeking a floating-rate stack of junior and senior financing with a five-to-seven-year term, raised from a combination of banks, private debt funds, insurance firms and other institutional capital sources. Newmark is the capital adviser on the project.

The partners plan to develop two 32-story towers encompassing 200 Aman-branded residences, a 78-suite Aman hotel, a private club, a conference center and shops, surrounded by eight acres of botanical gardens and water features.

The project will rise on a 17.5-acre site on Wilshire Boulevard that was once occupied by a Robinsons-May department store and a gas station.

The development includes a restoration of the Beverly Hilton, the perennial home of the Golden Globe Awards. The Hilton’s parking structure has been raised and construction has begun on an underground garage with space for 1,800 vehicles.

The new financing will not cover the adjacent Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, which is co-owned by Cain International and Alagem Capital Group.

The project was approved in 2021 for a triangular site between Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards next to the Los Angeles Country Club. The triangle will link the Waldorf Astoria and a restored Beverly Hilton hotel with the first Aman luxury hotel on the West Coast.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, borrowing for commercial property in the U.S. dropped by 47% in 2023 to about $429B, compared to the previous year.

The partnership between London-based Cain and Miami-based OKO has thus far secured some of the largest financing packages in 2024. Last month, Cain and OKO announced they raised $565M in financing for 830 Brickell, a new office tower nearing completion in Miami.