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This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer. Please contact me at Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526.

Published on:

15 November 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.
This is one of many articles on the subject of “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” in the rich library at www.HotelLawBlog.com.

Hospitality Lawyer: Turnarounds, workouts, receiverships, bankruptcies and deeds in lieu for troubled and defaulted hotel mortgage loans. As we all fasten our seat belts for a rough ride in the Global Financial Crisis, commercial real estate has begun to feel the pain. Hotels will share the fate of the economy, commercial real estate, the airlines and consumer confidence. It does not look pretty.

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Published on:

10 November 2008

Hospitality Lawyer — What does the Financial Crisis mean for vacation ownership projects?
As you may have read in a previous article or press release, David Sudeck recently joined JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group as a hotel lawyer to head up our timeshare and vacation ownership practice. He is a real veteran on the team for these issues. (See “Hotel & Timeshare Lawyer Joins JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® team“).

David has started writing and posting his own series of articles on vacation ownership. You can access these timeshare and vacation resources under the “Timeshare” TOPIC — one of the tabs at the top — at www.HotelLawBlog.com. You can also just go to https://hotellaw.jmbm.com/timeshare/.

Vacation ownership products (including timeshares, fractional interests, and private residence clubs) have an increasingly important role in the development and repositioning of hotels and resorts, but as the Financial Crisis has gone global, there are some special implications for the industry which David writes about in this timely article.

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Published on:

3 November 2008

Hotel Lawyer in Dallas, Texas at the Fishing for Solutions conclave of special servicers and hotel mortgage loan default SWAT teams. JMBM has been privileged to sponsor and take a significant role for many years in Steve Van’s unique conference celebrating its 8th anniversary in Dallas this week. Steve and his hotel management companies — Prism Hotels & Resorts (the company for managing good, healthy hotels) and REMIC Hotels (the company for managing bad, distressed hotels) — dominate the hotel industry in terms of managing troubled hotels for lenders who appoint receivers, get bankruptcy trustees and take back troubled hotels. In the last few years, Steve has broadened his scope to include more traditional bank and other commercial hotel lenders and investors with troubled hotel assets. And of course Prism does an excellent job of managing the “good hotels” for Steve’s own account, his investors, and many discerning owners (including some of JMBM’s referred clients.)

Here are my thoughts from tonight’s reception . . .

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Published on:

30 October 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.

Butler’s Matrix: the Hospitality Lawyer’s analytical tool for lender decisions on hotel mortgage loan defaults — workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu or bankruptcy.

OK. You handle troubled real estate loans for a lender. You are in special servicing or special assets. A troubled hotel loan comes on your screen. You know that hotel loans are different, and you have just brushed up on the Dos and Don’ts of troubled hotel loan workouts. You have done your Comprehensive Situation Analysis so that you have all the relevant business and legal information you need to make a decision, and you have even mulled over the Lender Alternatives for a Troubled Hotel Loan. But you think that there must be another way to get your arms around this situation to make a decision on which way to go . . . And there is. It’s Butler’s Matrix for choosing Lender Alternatives in troubled hotel mortgage loan workouts and defaults. . .

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Published on:

30 October 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.

Advice from Hospitality Lawyer: Options and considerations in troubled hotel mortgage loans for lenders and borrowers.

When a hotel loan gets in trouble, a lender should immediately perform a Comprehensive Situation Analysis. (See Hospitality Lawyer – The “Comprehensive Situation Analysis” for troubled hotel loans and workouts). This is the foundation for making some of the most important decisions that the lender will face on what to do with the borrower and the loan. The borrower should also look at these considerations to formulate its strategy to accomplish its goals. So what are the alternatives for dealing with a troubled hotel loan, and what are the considerations each party has?

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Published on:

30 October 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.

Hospitality Lawyer: The Comprehensive Situation Analysis — Critical foundation for decisions on lender alternatives for workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu and bankruptcies with distressed hotel loan

When CMBS special servicers (and other lenders’ special assets workouts teams) see more hotel loans pop up on their “Watch Lists,” it is important to perform a “Comprehensive Situation Analysis” of your “special assets” or distressed loans. Do you know why? Do you know how?

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Published on:

30 October 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.

Hospitality Lawyer: Workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu and bankruptcies with distressed hotel loans: Do you know the 8 Dos and Don’ts of handling Troubled Hotel Loans?

As CMBS special servicers and other lenders’ special assets workouts teams start to receive a new wave of troubled loans in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis that erupted in September 2008, it is a great time to “get back to fundamentals” and review the Dos and Don’ts of Troubled Hotel Loans. So here they are in case you want to test your memory or get started on a new run . . .

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Published on:

30 October 2008

Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.

Hotel Lawyer on troubled hotel mortgage loans and defaults, hotel workouts, hotel bankruptcies, and hotel deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

JMBM’s bankruptcy lawyers say that they have not been this busy in 20 years. JMBM’s troubled loan team veterans have dealt with more than 1,000 receiverships over the years and handled some of the biggest real estate, timeshare and hotel assets for banks and the U.S. Government (both the FDIC and the RTC in the last great meltdown). As they swing into action again, they have dusted off and updated all their checklists, polished their troubled asset technology and are providing decades of experience that has been largely lost by most institutional players from too many prosperous years.

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Published on:

28 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer with the fundamentals of vacation ownership. Vacation ownership, timeshare, fractional and clubs have increasingly important roles in hotel and resort development, and repositioning, but as the Panic of 2008 has gone global, we may also find ourselves addressing these projects in workouts, receiverships and bankruptcies. It’s time for all of us to dust off the cobwebs and be sure we understand this critical component of our industry.

The hotel lawyers at JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® are fortunate to have David Sudeck heading up the timeshare and vacation resort practice for us. He is a real veteran on the team for these issues. (See “Hotel & Timeshare Lawyer Joins JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® team“).

So given these interesting times, I asked David if he would put together a series of articles on a spectrum of timeshare topics and he readily agreed. Here is the first in David’s “Vacation Ownership 101” series. You will also be able to access timeshare and vacation resources under the “Timeshare” TOPIC — one of the tabs at the top — at www.HotelLawBlog.com. You can also just go to https://hotellaw.jmbm.com/timeshare/.

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