The Hard Rock Hotel in Long Beach has already taken a massive step forward toward its completion, scoring a $8.75M loan to cover pre-construction costs, per the Los Angeles Business Journal.
According to the Journal, the financing, which was obtained by Gantry Inc., a San Francisco-based private consulting and financial advisory firm.
“Gantry specializes in identifying development and construction funding from our roster of more than 100 unique lenders and capital sources,” Andy Bratt, a principal at Gantry’s Newport Beach office, told the Journal. “The Hard Rock development is backed by a well-capitalized sponsor with extensive experience delivering complex projects in urban environments.”
Bratt, along with Gantry’s senior director Amit Tyagi, director Stefan Malmlund and associate Sean Kuang, worked to secure the funding on behalf of Steinhauer Properties, the sponsor-developer of the planned 31-story hotel, according to the Journal.
The proposed plans for Hard Rock Hotel in Long Beach
For those wondering if these renderings look familiar, they should because they are precisley the same as those proposed in 2018.
Originally part of American Life’s portfolio, a developer based out of Seattle who bought the parcel in 2016 for $7 million, it now belongs to Gregory Steinhauer, former president of American Life. He and partner Henry Liebman formally parted ways shortly after this project received another extension for development by the city’s Planning Commission in 2021. It was decided that year that Liebman will continue to own American Life, while Steinhauer launched his new development company based in Bellevue, Washington; part of that deal was separating assets, of which Steinhauer received the 100 E. Ocean Blvd. parcel via his Steinhauer Properties.
At its apex, which are the penthouses at the top, the building is expected to reach a height of 402 feet, just above the World Trade Center but below Shoreline Gateway, making Shoreline and Hard Rock the only buildings in the city to achieve a height above 400 feet.
The massive project will include 537,075-square-feet of hotel space spanning 429 rooms—171 king rooms, 152 double-queen rooms, 76 suites, and 30 penthouse suites—along with 23,512-square-feet of restaurant space and 26,847-square-feet of conference, ballroom, and pre-function spaces. This will also include a new restaurant dubbed Sessions.
And, perhaps most exciting, Steinhauer’s mention of a newly minted music venue—a much-needed addition to a neighborhood that was once booked with perpetual lineup of live acts. (We won’t forget the sale of The Vault—a venue that once hosted everyone from BB King to the B-52s—to a church.)