Developers Lincoln Property Co. and McCourt Partners secured financing to bring a stalled Culver City multifamily project back to life.
The partners landed a $132.7 million construction loan from Bank OZK to build a six-story apartment building on the former U.S. Post Office site at 11111 Jefferson Blvd., Lincoln announced Wednesday. Berkadia’s Lou Friedel and Keith Rosso arranged the loan for the borrowers.
The joint venture partners acquired the 3.4-acre triangular lot at the intersection of Sepulveda and Jefferson boulevards from El Segundo-based lender Thorofare Capital last year, according to property records.
The proposed mixed-use project will include 344 units, with 52 set aside for low-income households. Plans also include 2,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 0.4 acres of public outdoor space, as well as parking for 500 cars, according to the designs drawn up by Culver City-based KFA Architecture. Construction will get underway before the end of the year, the developers said.
Fresh start
The loan kicks off the second attempt to develop housing on the site, which was previously home to a post office, Coco’s Bakery Restaurant and a Valvoline oil change shop before they were demolished in 2022 to make room for Chicago-based John Buck Co.’s and 3MR Capital’s proposed five-story retail, office and residential development.
Thorofare provided the partners a $34 million pre-development loan, but the project never secured financing to cover construction costs then pegged at $210 million, according to Thorofare.
The razed construction site sat empty for nearly three years before the venture defaulted on the Thorofare loan and the lender took back the property at a foreclosure auction in December 2024 with a $12 million credit bid. The unpaid debt at the time totaled $36.8 million, according to a trustee’s deed.
Then Lincoln and McCourt paid $29 million to snap it up from Thorofare, according to a deed recorded in May.
Culver City approved the partners’ revised plan for the site weeks later. It eliminated the office space and added 114 more housing units. The new design also swaps underground parking for a central garage, according to the developers’ application.
Local ties
Lincoln is no stranger to Culver City. The Dallas-based firm completed a 140,000-square-foot office building known as Entrada in 2022 at 6181 Centinela Ave. and Culver City also approved Lincoln’s office-to-residential conversion at 5700 Hannum Avenue in 2024.
Stephen Lindgren, Los Angeles market lead at Lincoln, described the Bank OKZ loan as a “critical milestone” in a statement Wednesday.
McCourt, a real estate firm founded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, also has deep local ties. Its portfolio includes the proposed Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit gondola to Dodger Stadium, plus a 28 million-square-foot development site in Phoenix, Arizona.
“Securing construction financing in today’s environment speaks to the strength of the sponsorship and the fundamentals behind this project,” Friedel said in a statement.
Terms of the Bank OZK loan were not disclosed.
