Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
25 September 2006
Last week at The Lodging Conference in Phoenix, hotel-enhanced mixed-use was one of the hot topics which everyone was talking about. A recent example of this trend was reported in the September 19 news that Miami Heat basketball star and NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal is getting involved in a high-profile mixed-use project. He has formed The O’Neal Group, a real estate firm that plans big real estate projects across the country. Its first venture is with MDM Development in a $1 billion mixed-use project in downtown Miami. The so-called Met Miami will include an office tower, 1,100 residential units, a supermarket, a 24-hour fitness center and a high end Marriott hotel. O’Neal, who has amassed a real estate portfolio worth $50 million over recent years, will be involved in the sales and marketing arm of the development operation.
“This is not only a real estate deal, we want people to live how they want to live, so we’re going to have a Whole Foods inside, a 24-hour Fitness inside,” and other retailers, O’Neal said after the Met Miami news conference, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
O’Neal also will continue to play basketball, given that he has three years left on the contract he signed with the Miami Heat after being traded from the LA Lakers in 2004. The star’s involvement in Met Miami may be a mixed blessing. As a high-profile athlete, O’Neal’s commitment to mixed-use (the term was used at the Met Miami press conference) will likely give a lot more public attention to this burgeoning category of real estate. His $1 billion bet on mixed-use will be analyzed by pundits, sports fans and big investors, a much larger audience than is customary for real estate projects. The international media will be covering every step – and mistake – in building the Met Miami; consider that The China Daily, The Toronto Globe and Mail and Israel’s Haaretz were among the many newspapers that covered the formation of the O’Neal Group.
Met Miami could raise public consciousness significantly for hotel-enhanced mixed-use – , an idea I have been talking about for some time now (see, for example, my September 7 blog posting). It could further validate investor and developer interest, but it will also shine a bright spot light on any planning, design or legal missteps. Let’s hope the O’Neal Group and the rest of the industry is ready to take hotel-enhanced mixed use to the next level where it belongs.
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Our Perspective. We represent developers, owners and lenders. We have helped our clients as business and legal advisors on more than $125 billion of hotel transactions, involving more than 4,700 properties all over the world. For more information, please contact Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526.
Jim Butler is one of the top hotel lawyers in the world. GOOGLE “hotel lawyer” or “hotel mixed-use” or “condo hotel lawyer” and you will see why.
Jim devotes 100% of his practice to hospitality, representing hotel owners, developers and lenders. Jim leads JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® – a team of 50 seasoned professionals with more than $87 billion of hotel transactional experience, involving more than 3,900 properties located around the globe.
Jim and his team are more than “just” great hotel lawyers. They are also hospitality consultants and business advisors. They are deal makers. They can help find the right operator or capital provider. They know who to call and how to reach them. They are a major gateway of hotel finance, facilitating the flow of capital with their legal skill, hospitality industry knowledge and ability to find the right “fit” for all parts of the capital stack. Because they are part of the very fabric of the hotel industry, they are able to help clients identify key business goals, assemble the right team, strategize the approach to optimize value and then get the deal done.
Jim is frequently quoted as an expert on hotel issues by national and industry publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Hotel Business. A frequent author and speaker, Jim’s books, articles and many expert panel presentations cover topics reflecting his practice, including hotel and hotel-mixed use investment and development, negotiating, re-negotiating or terminating hotel management agreements, acquisition and sale of hospitality properties, hotel finance, complex joint venture and entity structure matters, workouts, as well as many operating and strategic issues.
Jim Butler is a Founding Partner of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP and he is Chairman of the firm’s Global Hospitality Group®. If you would like to discuss any hospitality or condo hotel matters, Jim would like to hear from you. Contact him at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526. For his views on current industry issues, visit www.HotelLawBlog.com.