Pebblebrook just announced that it sold another WeHo hotel, but left the buyer a mystery.
My kneejerk reaction: Is it Daniel Negari, again?
I recently profiled Negari for TRD’s monthly magazine — a piece you can read here — and this sounded like his kind of deal.
So I asked him, and my kneejerk reaction was on the money.
Turns out Negari, who made a name and fortune through his XYZ domain business online, has taken another step into the IRL world of commercial real estate.
Late last year saw Negari buy the Montrose, a chic West Hollywood hotel that has a rock-’n’-roll vibe by Sunset Strip, from Jon Bortz’s REIT for around $44 million, or about $333,000 per key. It’s not just hotels for Negari, either, he made splashes with the separate purchases of two downtown San Diego office towers from Donald Bren’s Irvine Company.
Negari’s latest deal saw him buy the Chamberlain for $43.5 million, or $378,000 a key. Negari said he was excited to have his first Michelin key and looks forward to elevating it further. The boutique all-suite hotel is on 1000 Westmount Drive, steps away from Sunset Boulevard.
Is Mahan’s CRE crew in denial?
Marcus & Millichap founder and chair George Marcus donated the $78,400 max to Matt Mahan’s campaign for California governor on May 20. Marcus & Millichap did not respond to a request for comment.
Not only is he another Los Angeles real estate player Mahan can tack on his roster, but it appears the crew — which counts Related’s Bill Witte, Kilroy’s Angela Aman, Hudson Pacific’s Victor Coleman, star broker Jason Oppenheim, Eastdil’s D. Michael Van Konynenburg and more as members — is still betting on the San Jose mayor even though he continues to poll poorly days before the primary election.
Mahan’s billionaire backer Rick Caruso doesn’t appear to have given up either. On the Social Currency podcast this week, Caruso said, “he’s exceptional. I hope he becomes our governor. I’m leaning in big for him.” Coleman, the HPP boss, seemed to extend his Mahan bet. “He’ll be a candidate in the future, too,” he said on a podcast in April.
The question is, who will the Los Angeles real estate clique put its money on post-primary? Ex-Fox News host Steve Hilton is really the only other candidate on our radar that has real estate money and a chance at winning, but he’s a Republican in very-blue California.
On Caruso and politics
He checked his swing on political ambitions but followed through on a couple of politicians to Social Currency’s Sammi Tannor Cohen:
- The mall magnate is keeping the political door open. “I hope that one day I will be able to serve as an elected official,” Caruso said. This time around, he was worried there would be a bullseye on his back and his family’s because he would be running as a billionaire. He mentioned New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders and their eat the rich rhetoric.
- He said he knew Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who dropped out of the governor race after accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced, was corrupt. “Everybody sort of knew he was corrupt,” Caruso said without offering any more info.
- When asked what he knew about fire preparedness that the city didn’t, since he was able to save his Palisades Village during the Los Angeles wildfires, he said: “We’ve got really stupid leadership in the city of L.A.” He went on to say he knew he was developing in an area where there were fires, so his company had an if-there-is-a-fire plan. When there were wind warnings — which he said “everybody got other than Mayor Bass” — his team called in the plan.
Hackman Capital Partners Drama
Hackman Capital Partners is suing Erewhon over unpaid rent.
Michael Hackman’s company claims its luxe Culver Steps tenant owes more than $275,000. The rent itself, which increases periodically, per the 15-year lease attached to the breach-of-contract complaint, comes out to around a million dollars each year. There are other costs (via additional rent) that include common area maintenance and taxes, too. But let’s just say it is about three months of rent that the fancy grocery hasn’t paid, allegedly.
By the way, this is not the first accusation against Erewhon.
In any case, Hackman is shopping Culver Steps right now, and it’s one of his best bets at making money. The mixed-use campus is totally leased and has a rumored price tag of $150 million, or a very pricey $1,200 per square foot or so — while a lot of his other properties are in trouble. Hackman lost Radford Studio Center to Goldman Sachs five years after paying almost $2 billion, and now it may trade for less than $400 million. It also defaulted on a $100 million loan on what once was its Sony Pictures Animation campus, and Deutsche Bank is reportedly recruiting a broker to market its Television City property.
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Hackman sues Erewhon alleging unpaid rent to the tune of $275K