Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies scores $93M refi for Line Hotel

Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies has scored $93 million to refinance the Line Hotel, a 384-room project at 3515 Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown, the company said.

Natixis, the French corporate and investment bank, provided the floating-rate mortgage, which will be used to refinance an existing renovation loan from Deutsche Bank after the recent multimillion dollar improvements at the property, the company said.

It will also be used to fund Yucaipa’s repositioning of the first-floor lobby and restaurant areas and to upgrade the property’s ballroom.

The 12-story, boutique hotel, one of the first in a long line of trendy hospitality offerings changing the face of Koreatown, opened in 2014. It’s managed by Sydell Group, a New York-based hotel management company co-founded by Burkle and Andrew Zobler that’s also behind the Ace and NoMad hotels in Manhattan.

The company paid $34,58 million for the building in 2011 and tapped Sean Knibb to design all the new hotel rooms and public spaces.

Natixis has been active in the hotel space. Last year, Chinese investment firm Cindat Capital Management financed a $571 million purchase of a majority stake in seven New York hotels with $335 million in loans from Natixis and Oaktree Capital Management.