Cain and OKO Seek $5.25B Debt to Finish One Beverly Hills

Cain International and OKO Group want $5.25 billion in loans to complete their One Beverly Hills resort in time for the 2028 Olympics.

The London-based and Miami-based developers seek the financing package to finish the luxury project at 9850, 9876, 9900 and 9988 Wilshire Boulevard, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources.

The debt would fund construction and replace a $2 billion financing package led by JP Morgan for the 17.5-acre luxury megaproject under construction in Beverly Hills on a site once occupied by a Robinsons-May department store and gas station.

The $5.25 billion in loans would be 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, the sources told Bloomberg.

Newmark Group is the capital advisor for the project.

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

When complete, One Beverly Hills will contain up to 200 luxury condominiums in twin towers of up to 32 stories, a 78-suite Aman hotel and residences, a private club, a conference center and shops, surrounded by 8 acres of botanical gardens and water features.

The Hilton’s parking structure has been bulldozed and earth movers are digging a hole for an underground garage for 1,800 cars. The new financing will not cover the adjacent Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, co-owned by Cain International and Alagem Capital Group, based in L.A.

The sought-for financing comes as many banks have stepped back from commercial real estate, with higher interest rates and construction costs raising the risk of loan defaults, and reduced profitability for lenders.

U.S. commercial-property borrowing fell 47 percent last year from 2022 to $429 billion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Cain, headed by Jonathan Goldstein, is a partnership between Goldstein and Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, based in Greenwich, Conn.

OKO Group is led by Vlad Doronin, who heads the Aman Group, which has 35 hotels, resorts and residences in 20 nations. In July, Cain and OKO announced they had scored $565 million in construction financing for 830 Brickell, a 57-story office tower in Miami.

— Dana Bartholomew