Eli Sasson Scores $33.4M Refi for Beverly Hills Manse

Los Angeles developer Eli Sasson pulled his Beverly Hills spec mansion from the auction block just in the nick of time thanks to a short-term cash injection from Alex Guralnik and Nick Blatin’s Private Money Solutions, The Real Deal has learned.

The hard money lender provided a 12-month $33.4 million loan to refinance $28.6 million in debt tied to Sasson’s 620 Arkell Drive, Blatin told TRD.

The vacant Beverly Hills home was set to be sold at auction Aug. 5 after Sasson’s previous lender, Axos Bank, sold the debt to Dalan Real Estate, which promptly initiated a foreclosure, as TRD previously reported.

Sasson, who did not immediately respond to request for comment, completed the opulent home in 2022 and listed it for $88 million. He failed to find a buyer and took out a $25 million bridge loan from Axos in 2023, according to property records filed in Los Angeles County. But that didn’t buy enough time.

Sasson was still looking for a buyer willing to pay what he thought the home was worth when the bridge loan came due in March. He found himself facing foreclosure for far less than the home’s $88 million listing price, and put up a fight in court.

He claimed it was a wrongful foreclosure in court proceedings and even filed for bankruptcy to avoid the approaching auction date, but to no avail.

Now, within days of the auction date, a private lender has come to the rescue.

Dalan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new financing from Private Money Solutions will buy Sasson another 12 months to sell the home.

The loan comes with a six-month interest reserve, Blatin said. After that, Sasson’s debt will grow quickly. It has an annual interest rate of 11 percent, but Blatin is confident the property will sell before the loan’s term is up.

“They’ll lower the price and sell it, and we’ll get it done,” Blatin said. “I hope not to foreclose on anyone.”

It’ll still make a tidy sum for Private Money’s investors. Blatin declined to share who is backing the Arkell Drive rescue fund, but described the investors as “friends and family that like to do this and make a nice return.”