San Francisco’s Tilden Hotel Sells for $9.3 Million

Los Angeles-based private lender Hankey Capital is backing a bargain-bin buy of a hotel near San Francisco’s Union Square.

Hankey, headquartered in Hancock Park, provided an $8 million loan for an affiliate of San Diego-based Oceanic Enterprises to buy the 118-room Tilden Hotel near Union Square, the San Francisco Business Times reported. AllianceBernstein offloaded the 345 Taylor Street property for $9.3 million.

AllianceBernstein acquired the building via deed in lieu of foreclosure in 2022. Previous owner Yang Capital Group owed AllianceBernstein nearly all of the $48.5 million it paid for the property in 2015. The sale price to Oceanic marks a nearly 80 percent drop in value in the decade since then.

Oceanic also counts the Cornell Hotel de France nearby at 715 Bush Street in San Francisco’s Nob Hill in its portfolio. The company also reopened the Jeanne d’Arc restaurant, which dates back to 1972, inside the Cornell Hotel de France. It closed a year later and converted it into a private event space with an 80-person capacity.

“The decision was made in response to shifting demand, with a growing interest in private event spaces in San Francisco,” Priscila Damasceno, Oceanic’s marketing director, told SFGate of the move.

The Union Square area is proving to be a popular choice for outside real estate investors. Ian Jacobs, heir to the Reichmann real estate dynasty, has bought two buildings in the neighborhood in the past two months: a five-story office building with ground-floor retail at 111 Ellis Street and an Art Deco retail building at 200-216 Powell Street. The developer raised $75 million in funds to acquire 3 million square feet of offices across downtown San Francisco as part of his Project Uris plan.

Oceanic Enterprises has been snapping up properties throughout California since the pandemic. In recent years, the firm has acquired restaurants in the San Diego area including Martini’s Above Fourth, Mikami Bar & Revolving Sushi, Banzai Bar and Star Bar.

— Chris Malone Méndez