Trending
Joel Schreiber extends Hankey loan on LA’s Union Bank Plaza
New York investor pays down 40% of original $75M debt on mostly empty office
Joel Schreiber has paid off more than 40 percent of a $75 million loan from Hankey Capital on his Union Bank Plaza building in Downtown Los Angeles, to score an extension on the debt, The Real Deal has learned.
Schreiber’s loan was coming due this month, according to a source familiar with the matter. To extend it, Schreiber had to pay off $35 million — and did so successfully. Hankey Capital declined to comment.
Schreiber now holds a $40 million loan from Hankey on the Downtown L.A. office tower at 445 South Figueroa Street, which he bought for $110 million in March 2023, just a couple of days before the City of L.A.’s new transfer taxes went into effect. Hankey provided the loan on Union Bank Plaza alongside BH Properties, which held a more junior position, according to a source familiar with the acquisition.
The paydown comes as the New York-based investor, who runs Waterbridge Capital and is known as one of the first investors in WeWork, faces nearly $100 million in court judgments on the other side of the country. In two separate lawsuits against Schreiber, New York state judges ruled that he owed millions to Goldman Sachs and an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group.
And before that, Schreiber had admitted to running low on cash. In a 2018 deposition, he said he had less than $1 million in liquidity.
Still, he scrounged up cash for Union Bank Plaza.
Schreiber’s deal for the 701,000-square-foot building came after months of negotiations with the seller, a real estate investment trust run by KBS. In August 2022, Schreiber signed a deal to buy the office tower for $155 million and then scored 11 extensions on the deal and haggled for a lower price over time.
It’s unclear what the terms of Schreiber’s new loan with Hankey is and whether the loan has any personal guarantees.
The original loan was not intended to be permanent financing, one source familiar with the deal told TRD at the time the deal closed, but a bridge deal.
Some have speculated the building, which is about 40 percent occupied, could be ripe for conversion into apartments, though no plans have been filed.
Don Hankey, the billionaire chairman of Hankey Capital, recently made headlines with a $175 million appeals bond to a New York court for former U.S. President Donald Trump.