Hotel Lawyer on hotel financing. Looking for money to develop a hotel mixed-use project? Need debt or equity financing to buy a portfolio of hotels or just a one-off deal? Seeking financing to reposition your hotel project? It doesn’t matter. . . On May 3, 2007, hundreds of hotel financing experts, hotel developers, and hospitality insiders will converge at the Sheraton Gateway LA Airport Hotel in Los Angeles to Meet the Money®.
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Hotel Financing looking at a new benchmark — The $100 billion deal.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
25 April 2007
Hotel Lawyer on hotel financing summit. As more than 120 providers of capital — debt and equity capital for hotels — prepare to head to Los Angeles for the ultimate face-to-face summit with consumers of hotel capital in Los Angeles on May 3, 2007 at JMBM’s Meet the Money® Conference (for details, see www.MeetTheMoney.com) , a fitting benchmark has been surpassed. The $100 billion deal is now “on the table” and may be about to happen!
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I talked about it earlier here on www.HotelLawBlog.com when it still seemed unthinkable, and that was only January of this year. See Two deals that may change the lodging world forever and Size no longer matters . . . at least in the hotel industry. Is the entire hotel industry now in play?
In these postings, I mused that the new ability of the private equity guys to raise virtually unlimited amounts of capital suggests that even a $100 billion deal is possible, and noting that the entire capitalization of the hotel industry is less than the Equity Office deal completed earlier this year.
Well today, the Wall Street Journal has a breaking story that a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has made an offer to buy ABN Amro Holding for 76 billion euros (or $103 billion), outbidding Barclay’s 64.9 billion euro offer. This deal does not involve any hotels, but raising capital is something a commodity business — it does not matter what the capital is for; the capital raising machine has surpassed all the old limits. Anything could be next.
What does this portend?
These are certainly exciting times. Hotel financing is about as readily available as it is likely to get, for big deals or small ones, for new development or refinancing of exiting product. That will be the entire focus at our Gateway to Hotel Finance in Los Angeles next week on May 3, 2007 at the Sheraton LAX. Whether you are a provider of capital or a consumer of capital — a hotel lender or a hotel borrower — if you can’t hook up with the right people next week, something must be wrong. Because next Thursday is time for Meet the Money® 2007. Hope to see you there.
Jim
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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. In the last 5 years alone, Jim and his team have assisted clients with more than 90 hotel mixed-use projects, all of which have involved at least some residential, and many have also involved significant spa, restaurant, retail, office, sports, and entertainment components — frequently integrated with energizing lifestyle elements.
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.
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Hotel Lawyer: Disastrous wage and hour decision. California Supreme Court makes it a dark day for employers. Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. (decided April 16, 2007)
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com 17 April 2007
Hotel Lawyer with landmark labor and employment decision from the California Supreme Court on wage and hour issues. Wage and hour claims are serious matters for employers, because they typically involve class actions with lots of current (and former employees), and the claims can cover a long period of time. They are also particularly bad for the hospitality industry because so many employees are nominally “exempt” employees–managers or assistant managers–by their titles, but not under California legal standards. (See prior postings on www.HotelLawBlog.com under the Topic of “Labor & Employment” such as New law on who is a “supervisor” can even the playing field for employers a bit.)
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Hotel developer alert. So you’re thinking about building a green hotel — or making your existing hotel a little greener? Can you afford not to do that today?
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com 12 April 2007
Hotel lawyer on a new hotel construction — now may be the time to build or convert green hotels. OK, now that we have solved all your hotel finance problems — or will soon at Meet the Money® 2007 (see “What are the secrets to financing a hotel project today? Who are the “active” hotel lenders and equity providers now?” and www.MeetTheMoney.com), let’s deal with some other critically important issues.
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What are the secrets to financing a hotel project today? Who are the “active” hotel lenders and equity providers now? Who likes to finance hotel development and construction? Hotel mixed-use?
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com 9 April 2007
Hotel lawyer reporting from the “Gateway to hotel finance.” I have received more telephone calls, e-mails and inquires through www.HotelLawBlog.com recently asking how we can help facilitate financing an unprecedented number of hotel deals. The inquiries concern every type of debt and equity financing imaginable for every kind of hotel or hospitality project — big hotel deals, little hotel deals; domestic and foreign hotel projects; urban high-rise hotels as well as urban and destination resorts; complex hotel mixed-use and more mundane, bread-and-butter select service hotels.
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Hotel Lawyer: The new “LIFESTYLE” hotel brands are changing the hotel industry and hotel mixed-use. Miraval: The health and wellness lifestyle brand.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
2 April 2007
Hospitality Lawyer on the new “LIFESTYLE” hotel brands. What is a hotel lifestyle brand? That is a great question and one with some profound implications that we will explore a bit today. I would like to do that using Miraval — one of the new lifestyle brands — as something of a “case study.”
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Hospitality Lawyer on “LIFESTYLE” hotel mixed-use development. Are Valencia and Miraval the new paradigms for “lifestyle” hotel mixed-use?
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
23 March 2007
Hospitality Lawyer on “LIFESTYLE” hotel mixed-use development. Hotel mixed-use has emerged as one of the few ways hotel developers may be able to make a new development economically feasible, with skyrocketing construction costs. It has also become one of the hottest things going as developers of other real estate uses (shopping centers, office, retail, residential and entertainment) discover the big “IRR Premiums” that may be harvested from well-planned and tightly integrated hotel mixed-use projects. (See, my earlier postings on www.HotelLawBlog.com from The Hotel Developers Conference® in Rancho Mirage. about how green hotels may be in all our futures, hotel mixed-use is the pass key to unlocking new development and bigger profits, and the perspectives of the most successful leaders in hotel mixed-use today)
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Hotel Lawyer on Green Hotel Development: Green hotel development is profitable now! Inspirations from the pioneers make it dangerous NOT to be “green”
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
21 March 2007
We have talked about a lot of important subjects here on www.HotelLawBlog.com, like hotel management agreements controlling the value of an asset (see “5 Milestones Marking The Road To Success For Hotel Management Agreements“), but I believe we may be on a new frontier where “GREEN” will be more important and faster than anyone ever imagined. It will be faster and better than Gore inventing the internet highway!!! With better results for all our lives and no less phenomenal growth.
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Helping Owners Strike a Fair Deal: 5 Milestones Marking The Road To Success For Hotel Management Agreements
by Jim Butler and Robert Braun
19 March 2007
Keywords:
Hotel Operating Agreement, HOA, Hotel Management Agreement, HMA, Hotel Management Contract, Management Contract. Hotel Operator, Hotel Manager, Hotel Owner. RFP for Hotel Manager. RFP for Hotel Operator, How to get a great hotel operator.
Terminology
Contracts between hotel owners and managers (or operators) controlling the management of a hotel go by various names. They are called hotel management agreements, HMAs, hotel management contracts or hotel operating agreements. For convenient reference, this article will generally use the term “Hotel Management Agreement” or “HMA.” However all these terms can be used interchangeably and mean the same thing, just as with hotel operator or hotel manager.
Whatever they are called, Hotel Management Agreements allocate risk between the hotel manager and the hotel owner. They are critical in determining the profitability and value of a hotel.
In order to consummate any substantial business transaction, there are inevitably some “challenges” to overcome. Hotel management agreements are no exception: in part because of their complexity, and in part because hotel management agreements typically transfer effective control over valuable assets for several decades, and their terms can easily enhance — or diminish — the value of hotel by a staggering amount.
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“Hotel Mixed-Use” . . . pass key to unlocking new development and bigger profits?
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
13 March 2007
Hotel lawyer on hotel mixed-use development. “Hotel Mixed-Use” . . . and how it can be the pass key to unlocking both new development and bigger profits was the entire focus of The Hotel Developers Conference™ in Rancho Mirage. Creative ideas flowed and mixed. Nuggets of valuable insight were gathered. Introductions were made. Deals were done. The opening session of The Hotel Developers Conference™ was covered in my last posting on www.HotelLawBlog.com. And here’s what happened in the second full day.