Madison Realty Capital And Newbond Provide $115 Million Loan For California Luxury Beachfront Hotel

• Madison Realty Capital and Newbond Holdings originated a $115 million floating-rate, five-year, non-recourse loan to refinance La Bahia Hotel & Spa in Santa Cruz, CA.
• Ensemble Investments, LLC owns the 155-room resort, which opened in September 2025 on Monterey Bay and holds the distinction of being California's first luxury beachfront hotel.
• Sonnenblick-Eichner arranged the financing — the same team that closed a $110 million refinancing for Ensemble's Hotel NIA in Menlo Park just last month.
• The deal marks Madison and Newbond's second consecutive hospitality loan to Ensemble, totaling $225 million in Bay Area hotel debt in under 30 days.

Madison and Newbond Back California's First Luxury Beach Hotel

Santa Cruz has never had anything quite like La Bahia, and lenders are paying attention. Madison Realty Capital, led by Co-Founders Josh Zegen and Brian Shatz, working alongside Newbond Holdings, the hospitality platform co-founded by Neil Luthra and Vann Avedisian, has originated a $115 million first mortgage to refinance the newly opened La Bahia Hotel & Spa. The property: 155 rooms on the Monterey Bay waterfront, the first true luxury beachfront hotel in California history.

The financing is five-year, floating-rate, and non-recourse. Sonnenblick-Eichner Principal David Sonnenblick arranged the deal on behalf of owner Ensemble Investments, LLC.

"Madison Realty Capital, a seasoned hospitality lender, and Newbond were both drawn to the hotel's irreplaceable location, exceptional barriers to entry, and its potential to be among the most successful beachfront properties in Northern California," Sonnenblick said.

The Property: Nine Months Open, Already a Market Outlier

La Bahia opened in September 2025. In addition to its 155 keys, the resort offers an indoor-outdoor spa, fitness center, outdoor pool and hot tub, three dining concepts, the Pearl Champagne lobby bar, and 13,720 square feet of meeting and event space, a full-service platform in a market that has historically offered nothing like it.

Samir Tejpaul, Managing Director and Head of Investments at Madison Realty Capital, framed the scarcity plainly: "La Bahia is an irreplaceable asset in a market that has long been underserved by true luxury hospitality. The property's beachfront positioning along Monterey Bay gives it a structural competitive advantage that is extremely difficult to replicate."

Santa Cruz County sits at the northern end of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, roughly 75 miles south of San Francisco. Demand for luxury coastal accommodations in the region has outpaced supply for years, with most visitors historically diverted to Carmel or Monterey further south.

The Second Ensemble Deal in as Many Months

The La Bahia financing is not a one-off. Last month, Madison and Newbond closed a $110 million loan also arranged by Sonnenblick-Eichner to refinance Hotel NIA, Ensemble's 250-room full-service luxury hotel in Menlo Park. That deal, too, was a first mortgage with the same lender-borrower team.

Together, the two transactions represent $225 million in hospitality debt extended to Ensemble across the Bay Area in under 30 days. Tejpaul noted the significance of the repeat: "Having recently closed the Hotel NIA financing with Ensemble Investments, LLC, we have seen firsthand the operational depth and institutional credibility this team brings to complex hospitality assets across the Bay Area, and we are pleased to deepen that relationship with this transaction."

Andrew Fichte, Partner at Newbond Holdings, added that the firm sees La Bahia as a generational asset. "We are proud to support their vision through this financing and believe the property is well-positioned to become one of Santa Cruz's defining hospitality destinations for generations of visitors to come."

About the Lenders

Madison Realty Capital, co-founded by Josh Zegen and Brian Shatz in 2004, manages $24 billion in assets and has completed $82 billion in real estate transactions. The firm focuses on US-based commercial real estate private credit across the capital stack. Newbond Holdings, co-founded by Neil Luthra and Vann Avedisian, is a vertically integrated real estate and hospitality investment platform active in both debt and equity, with particular expertise in hospitality operating businesses and brand development.

With La Bahia nine months into operations and both firms deepened into Ensemble's Bay Area portfolio, the next milestone to watch is stabilized occupancy figures as the resort moves through its first full year.