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Condo Hotels’ Enduring Legacy: Hotel-Enhanced Mixed-Use

Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
7 September 2006

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I’ve been reading some press items lately that suggest the condo hotel phenomenon is coming to an end. The stories point to a few specific markets, like South Florida and Las Vegas, that are saturated with capital and deals, or to specific projects that have gone awry.

Are condo hotels dead? No, they are alive and well. Will the super-heated boom continue? No. Consumer demand will normalize and be cyclical, but quality projects will continue to be successful, particularly in markets that have not been flooded with product.

In any event, we believe that condo hotels continue to perform a valuable role and have earned an enduring legacy in the hospitality industry. They make new hotel development feasible where limited financing and skyrocketing constructions costs would otherwise be prohibitive. And perhaps more importantly–at least over the long-term–condo hotels have changed the way we view hotels being mixed with residential other kinds of real estate projects.

From direct experience with more than 80 hotel mixed-use projects over the past five years, all of which involved a condo hotel or residential component, often with other commercial real estate uses as well, we have participated in a intense effort that has produced some break-through solutions to obstacles that held back many earlier mixed-use projects. This effort has created a new technology and a deep pool of practical experience that already paying huge dividends. This technology and experience is critical to the success of hotel mixed-use as it takes an ever more-prominent role in commercial real estate.


And these improved approaches and body of experience for hotel mixed-use were developed just in time to join the now widely-hailed and more universal explosion of real estate mixed-use projects. In the last decade, the real estate industry has come full circle from viewing mixed-use with suspicion and derision. It is now seen as a legitimate class of real estate in its own right, and one that has captured the imagination of everyone. Increasingly, hotels are gaining recognition as the “ultimate amenity” for mixed-use projects because they can distinguish the project, provide a great driver of traffic, and offer an integrating center or hub for the mixed-use villages.

We like to call the next generation of well-conceived and executed projects “hotel-enhanced mixed-use.” But that is a subject for another blog entry. Stay tuned!

Other condo hotel resources

You can access the full library of Condo Hotel materials on Hotel Law Blog by going to the home page, selecting the tab at the top that says “HOTEL LAW TOPICS”, and then clicking on “Condo Hotels” in the drop down menu . . . or by clicking here.

Below is a partial listing of articles by JMBM’s Condo Hotel Lawyers:

This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. We’ve done more than $87 billion of hotel transactions and have developed innovative solutions to unlock value from hotels. Who’s your hotel lawyer?


Our Perspective. We represent hotel owners, developers and investors. We have helped our clients find business and legal solutions for more than $125 billion of hotel transactions, involving more than 4,700 properties all over the world, including more than 100 condo hotels and hotel condos. For more information, please contact Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or +1 (310) 201-3526.

Jim Butler is a founding partner of JMBM, and Chairman of its Global Hospitality Group® and Chinese Investment Group®. Jim is one of the top hospitality attorneys in the world. GOOGLE “hotel lawyer” and you will see why. 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.

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