Douglas Emmett scores $550M construction loan partly tied to Barrington Plaza

Douglas Emmett, a publicly listed real estate investment trust that owns office and apartment buildings in Southern California and Hawaii, took out a $550 million loan package backed by a portfolio of four residential properties, according to the company’s fourth-quarter filing with the SEC.

Notably, one of the four buildings is the embattled Barrington Plaza, one of the biggest multifamily complexes in West Los Angeles that has been the center of a tenant lawsuit against Douglas Emmett over mass evictions. 

Last year, Douglas Emmett evicted tenants from the 60-year-old tower, located at 11740 Wilshire Boulevard in Sawtelle, which impacted more than 700 affordable units and took all units off the market. The company cited the need to install $300 million fire sprinkling systems. 

The floating-rate loan will mature in 2027, according to the filing, and has an interest rate equal to the secured overnight financing rate plus 1.48 percent. As of Feb. 5, SOFR was at 5.31 percent. Douglas Emmett did not disclose the lender, and did not disclose which other buildings the loan backs. 

“For the portion [of the loan] secured by Barrington Plaza, in connection with the removal of that property from the rental market, we deposited $13.3 million of cash into an interest-bearing collateral account with the lender,” according to the filing. 

“The lender is treating the loan as a construction loan and we signed a construction completion guarantee,” Douglas Emmett added. 

The filing noted that the lender will return the deposit in August 2026 or when the loan is paid in full, whichever comes earlier. 

The loan commitment comes at a time when the fate of the building’s tenants is still uncertain, with some pledging to fight the eviction notice last year and others — particularly residents over 62 or disabled — having up to one year to leave, as TRD reported earlier.