Holliday Fenoglio Fowler Arranges $48 Million Refinancing for Historic Landmark Hotel, Casa del Mar, in Santa Monica, California.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 2003

The Los Angeles office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. arranged a $48 million refinancing for Casa del Mar, a 129-room, 128,567-square-foot luxury hotel located in Santa Monica, California.

Executive Managing Director Scott McMullin worked on behalf of the borrower, ET Whitehall Seascape, LLC, to secure the adjustable-rate, securitized loan through Bank of America, a conduit lender. The members of ET Whitehall Seascape, LLC are The Edward Thomas Companies - Salt Lake, and Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership IX and certain affiliates. Founded in 1932, the Edward Thomas Companies also own the hotel adjacent to Casa del Mar, Shutters on the Beach. The Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership IX is a real estate opportunity. The Casa del Mar is managed by The Edward Thomas Hospitality Corporation.

Casa del Mar is located at 1910 Ocean Avenue on the beach in Santa Monica, adjacent to the historic Santa Monica Pier, Third Street Promenade, Main Street and Montana Avenue shopping and dining areas, and the gardens and walkways of Palisades Park. Hotel amenities include multiple dining options, a pool and jacuzzi, spa and health club, 5,100 square feet of flexible meeting and banquet space ranging from board rooms to ballrooms, and a business center and in-room business equipment hook-ups.

Originally opened in 1926 as a beach club and hotel in the Renaissance Revival style, Casa del Mar was known for its active social scene. During World War II the hotel was converted to a military hotel. From 1959 to 1979, the property served as the headquarters for a drug therapy program and until 1997, as the Pritikin Longevity Center. The current owner purchased the hotel in 1998 and invested two years and $50 million to bring the hotel back to its original status.

"Casa del Mar is a four-star hotel and one of the top five hotels in the Los Angeles area. Its sponsorship includes one of the most highly respected hoteliers in the area along with one of the country's most successful real estate opportunity funds," said McMullin. "We were happy to have been able to identify lenders that valued the sponsorship and the hotel's quality to provide aggressive floating rate financing for this landmark facility."

With 17 offices nationwide, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler is one of the country's largest commercial real estate capital intermediaries, and the only firm that provides its clients with a complete menu of capital solutions for each assignment from its integrated platform of debt, private equity, structured finance and investment sales. Since 1998, the firm has capitalized close to $68 billion in all markets and property types.