John Molina’s Pacific6 scores $55M financing for LB luxe landmark

Long Beach-based Pacific6 Enterprises has secured $55 million in financing to complete an environmental upgrade to its century-old Ocean Center Building near downtown.

X-Caliber Funding, a subsidiary of X-Caliber Capital, and CastleGreen Finance provided the debt package, the Commercial Observer reported. Both are based in New York.

The package includes a $34.4 million short-term first-mortgage loan and $20.6 million in long-term Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing through the Open PACE Program run by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority.

The funding will pay for a multimillion-dollar renovation and adaptive reuse of its Ocean Center Luxury Apartments project on 110 West Ocean Blvd.

The 14-story Spanish Revival building was built in 1929 and designed by Raymond M. Kennedy, who also designed Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The Ocean Center once served as the gateway to the city’s famous Pike amusement zone.

The asymmetrical residential building was purchased in 2018 by Pacific6, a community investment and development partnership led by civic leader John Molina, former chief financial officer of Molina Healthcare.

When complete, the Ocean Center landmark will have 80 luxury apartments with modern amenities, rooftop terraces, clubhouse, fitness center and public spaces that will retain their opulent historic interior details, according to the Pacific6 website.

The $20.6 million C-PACE loan will finance energy upgrades aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the rate of an estimated 189.08 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The energy upgrade is expected to save 466,256 kilowatts of electricity a year and reduce water consumption by 4.9 million gallons a year. Savings are estimated at $65,079 in the first year and $1.9 million over 30 years, according to X-Caliber.

The Ocean Center Luxury Apartments project, slated for completion in early 2023, also includes three restaurants and a retail store.

The financing deal was led by Chris Callahan, CEO of X-Caliber, and Sal Tarsia, managing partner at CastleGreen Finance. Berkadia’s Matt Raptosh arranged the transaction.

It follows a $94 financing package arranged for Pacific6 to upgrade its landmark Breakers Hotel & Spa in Long Beach. The package included a $45.5 million C-PACE loan from X-Caliber and CastleGreen.

[Commercial Observer] – Dana Bartholomew

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