OakNorth has completed its largest deal since launching in September 2015: a £21m loan for the development of a new hotel, L’Oscar, in central London.
The luxury hotel – situated at 2-6 Southampton Row, WC1, in Holborn, in a Grade II listed former Baptist Church headquarters – is expected to open in early 2018.
The hotel is being designed by Jacques Garcia and will comprise 40 bedrooms, as well as a bar, restaurant, café, and conference facilities.
Jacques Garcia is the designer behind Hotel Costes in Paris, as well as the Nomad hotel in New York and Vagabond Hotel in Singapore. L’Oscar will be managed by Michael Voigt, who has over 20 years’ experience in the luxury hospitality sector.
Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance, OakNorth, said: “We’ve worked on a number of hotel deals since our launch in September 2015 – the development of a 200-bedroom aparthotel in Liverpool, the acquisition of the Ramada Plaza Southport Hotel, the merger between Whittlebury Hall and Whittlebury Park – but this is the first we’ve done in the hotel development space.”
Tony Tadros, director at Stonehouse Finance, said: “We are delighted to have worked with OakNorth. While arranging the debt for this transaction, we found the team to be incredibly swift, efficient and focused on closure within the tight deadline.”
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