SF’s Historic Huntington Hotel Slips into Loan Default

The Huntington Hotel, one of the famed “Big Four” hotels atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill, may face foreclosure after defaulting on a loan, according to a report. 

Documents filed with the city show a loan amounting to $56.2 million in default and a tax lien against the property, according to Bay Area News Group. Los Angeles-based Woodbridge Capital acquired the 136-room hotel in 2018 for $51.9 million. Its lender, Deutsche Bank, is seeking to foreclose on the loan.

First constructed in 1924, the twelve-story, Georgian-style hotel, along with its restaurant and spa, is closed until further notice according to its website. A request for comment wasn’t immediately returned. 

San Francisco hotels and office buildings have struggled with a steep drop in travelers and commuters, raising the risk of a crash in property values, mortgage defaults and unoccupied buildings.  

The city’s tax office is seeing a flood of requests for tax reassessments among commercial landlords who argue that the value of their properties has fallen.
That includes the owners of some of San Francisco’s most iconic buildings: the Transamerica Pyramid, Uber’s Mission Bay headquarters, and the Westin St. Francis, among others.