$300M Refinances Beverly Hilton Hotel

BEVERLY HILLS, CA-Oasis West Realty LLC has landed $300 million in financing for the Beverly Hilton Hotel in a deal arranged by Sonnenblick Goldman. The financing was provided by Column Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Suisse.

The hotel ownership has secured the financing as it gets set to execute a master plan for development on the site of the Beverly Hilton that will include a mix of condo and condo-hotel units. Owner Oasis West Realty LLC acquired the hotel in December 2003 and has already completed an $80 million renovation and repositioning of the 569-room hotel, which is situated on nine acres at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards.

Oasis West has started the entitlement process with the City of Beverly Hills to further develop the site according to its master plan. The plan will capitalize on what Rob Stiles, managing director and principal of Sonnenblick Goldman's San Francisco office, refers to as the "great brand awareness" of the hotel. Steve Kohn, president of Sonnenblick Goldman, adds that the hotel occupies a site that represents "irreplaceable real estate."

The hotel's owners, Beny Alagem and Oasis West Realty, said in a GlobeSt.com report this year described the master plan as a $500-million project that would include 96 new upgraded luxury hotel rooms and a 104 unit condo-hotel. The project is described by the hotel ownership as a long-term plan to "protect the hotel's future competitiveness."

The plan would upgrade the entire property into "a resort-like environment that would include a sub-tropical garden" along with the new luxury rooms, a wisteria-rooftop garden, a new tree-lined entry for the hotel, a transformed executive meeting center, an expanded hotel pool area with cabanas. The condo-hotel would provide 50 to 75 hotel rooms daily.

The building ownership hired Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and landscape architects Peter Walker & Partners last year to "define the next 50 years" for the property, which was built in 1955. Those firms teamed with Gensler and Associates architects to create what the hotel ownership calls the "Oasis Plan" for the property's future.