Ben Ashkenazy’s Beverly Connection Lands Extension

Ben Ashkenazy extended a loan backing his Beverly Connection by two years after the debt tied to the Los Angeles power center was stuck in special servicing due to delinquency.

The shopping center was reappraised in December at $193 million, 26 percent below its appraised value at issuance about a decade earlier. Not to mention, the strip mall is worth less than the $260 million Ashkenazy Acquisition purchased it for in 2014. But Ashkenazy Acquisition claims the mall was appraised again at a much greater value.

“The property has been recently appraised by a national firm on behalf of a lender well in excess of $300 million,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement to The Real Deal.

Ashkenazy landed the $210 million commercial mortgage-backed securities package connected to the 340,000-square-foot mall in 2014. The real estate mogul is a named sponsor on the debt tied to the two-story retail property at 100 North La Cienega Boulevard.

The loan went to special servicing in summer 2020, months after the pandemic became official and killed foot traffic. The mall’s net operating income plummeted to $10 million in December 2023 from $23 million a year earlier, and the property is not making enough money to cover debt. Occupancy fell to 92 percent in 2023 from 98 percent at issuance, too.

But the Beverly Connection welcomed a new tenant a couple months ago: Bloomingdale’s inked a lease for a 20,000-square-foot ground-level storefront set to open later this year. Plus, the mall’s top tenant is Target, which has a 100,000-square-foot lease, amounting to 30 percent of the space, that isn’t set to expire until 2029.

“With robust leasing activity, The Beverly Connection is now at occupancy levels in excess of 95 percent to all national tenants,” Ashkenazy’s spokesperson said.

A low blow

The Oscar De La Hoya-owned Downtown Los Angeles office building headed to special servicing after missing its July maturity date.

The boxer is trying to land an extension on the roughly $27 million CMBS loan tied to the 12-story office building at 626 Wilshire Boulevard that originated in 2015.

His company, Golden Boy, purchased a controlling interest in the offices, owned by Barker Pacific Group, for $16 million in 2004. Barker Pacific kept a minority share. De La Hoya and Michael Barker, the Barker Pacific founder who recently died, are named sponsors on the loan that has a balance of about $22 million.

Golden Boy occupies 10,500 square feet of the building, or around 7 percent of rentable space. But occupancy has plummeted in recent years, falling to 59 percent in March 2025 from 67 percent in 2024 and 76 percent in 2023. The office building was 89 percent occupied when the loan was underwritten.

Income at the property dropped to less than $350,000 in March 2025 from $2.3 million at the end of last year.

Multifamily infighting

Multifamily investor ESG Kullen sued a founding principal and a Southern California entity connected to the business, alleging theft of millions of dollars, fraud and forgery.

ESG Kullen claims founding principal, Thomas Delponti, and Kullen King Properties, an affiliate Delponti owns, took no less than $3.4 million in “excess distributions,” according to the complaint.

Co-founder and principal of ESG Kullen, Eric Granowsky, learned of the profits scandal and confronted Delponti who said he would “true up,” the complaint claims. But Delponti continued to “take excess distributions using remote access to the company’s Chase bank account,” the lawsuit reads.

Delponti denied the accusations against him to The Real Deal and placed blame on his counterpart who he co-founded the company with two and a half decades ago.

“The dispute stems from serious issues with financial mismanagement and control under Eric Granowsky, the managing member of ESG Kullen, who maintained sole authority over operations and distributions,” Delponti said in a statement. “Forensic accounting has already documented forged documents, unauthorized loans and misappropriated funds under his leadership. These issues are at the heart of the dispute, and we intend to vigorously defend against these claims and assert our own rights.”

ESG Kullen accused Delponti of using the company American Express credit card for $32,000 in personal expenses and forging a $400,0000 promissory note, “using the loan proceeds to benefit himself instead of the company,” per the complaint. He allegedly bypassed the company’s bank accounts, diverting the funds to his own.

Yes, chef

A Gordon Ramsay-backed cookware company inked two leases totaling about 39,000 square feet in Downtown Los Angeles.

HexClad leased about 29,000 square feet of offices at 555 Mateo Street and almost 10,000 square feet of warehouse space south of that. The company’s headquarters plus all of its operations will be concentrated in the Arts District. HexClad was looking at spots in Hollywood and Culver City before choosing Downtown.

The change in space comes after the cookware company received a $100 million investment from Studio Ramsay Global, a joint venture between Ramsay and Fox Entertainment, the network that airs the feisty chef’s popular shows.

The 555 Mateo complex, called At Mateo, is 192,000 square feet of offices owned by ASB Capital Management. Spotify, the University of Southern California and Kong Studios are tenants. The property is completely leased and commands rents of $57 per square foot — not too shabby considering average asking rents are $36 in Downtown Los Angeles.

Industrial bet

A Bridge Investment Group Holdings affiliate purchased three industrial assets in the Inland Empire for $84 million.

That comes to about $250 per square foot for Bridge Logistics Properties, the subsidiary, and happens to be about double the price some Class A office buildings in Downtown Los Angeles are fetching. But Bridge Logistics is confident in its buy.

“Local municipal headwinds, AB 98 and general land scarcity are causing significant barriers to new development,” Paul Jones, a managing director at Bridge Logistics Properties, said in a statement, referring to a state law passed last year that established design and build standards for logistics-use developments. “Once economic conditions stabilize and tenant demand normalizes, we believe we will see value appreciation for existing assets.”

The 333,000-square-foot industrial portfolio includes a 100,000-square-foot building at 14074 Rancho Court; an about 58,000-square-foot building at 14019 Rose Avenue; and a 175,000-square-foot building at 14928 Washington Drive. Each building is completely leased.

Apartments over offices

Lincoln Property Company ditched plans for nearly 67,000 square feet of offices in Culver City for more housing. The plans are for a mixed-use apartment complex it is developing at 11111 Jefferson Boulevard. And Culver City is in favor.

The developer wants to increase housing to 344 apartments from 230 and to decrease commercial space to only 2,000 square feet from 66,500. That eliminates all office space but expands affordable apartments to 52 from 19. And rather than develop parking in subterranean levels, there’ll be a central garage.

Construction of 11111 Jefferson should occur over about two years and could start as early as next July and reach completion by July 2028. Last year, Lincoln Property Company unveiled plans for a similar mixed-use project with 309 apartments at 5700 Hannum Avenue in Fox Hills, a neighborhood in Culver City.