View of the ocean and palmtrees from a beach resort

Hospitality: Financing

ArentFox Schiff represents hospitality clients in a wide variety of financing transactions associated with their development, acquisition, and disposition efforts.

For those clients developing new properties, we negotiate site acquisition and construction loans and handle all construction-related documentation required by lenders. In cases involving financing for hotel renovations, we assist clients with secured or unsecured loans and address the subordination issues related to any preexisting financing.

We advise clients on structuring their businesses to accommodate joint venture and other equity arrangements, and serve as counsel on sale-leaseback, ground leasing, mezzanine loan, and preferred-equity transactions. ArentFox Schiff has experience in representing borrowers in syndicated and securitized financing transactions and is adept at dealing with rating agency requirements. We draw on the resources of the ArentFox Schiff Public Financing group to assist with any bond financing and tax increment financing.

Our Work

  • RLJ Lodging Trust’s, and its subsidiaries’, mezzanine and mortgage-backed financings, refinancings, loan modifications, loan purchases, loan assumptions, and loan defeasances involving more than $3 billion in debt in connection with various hospitality ventures, including the restructuring of $50 million of debt from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company secured by a Cancun resort hotel, negotiating the $250 million mezzanine and mortgage acquisition financing for a Manhattan hotel, and negotiating $180 million in cross-collateralized credit facilities for assets in multiple states.

  • PacWest Bancorp/CapitalSource’s financing of almost every major flagship hotel brand, including Marriott, Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt, and Red Lion.

  • Marriott International

    •  Negotiation of an initial $300 million senior construction loan with a bank syndicate and a subsequent $400 million refinancing of the senior loan, as well as the negotiation of a related mezzanine loan, for the Grande Lakes Orlando hotel in Orlando.

    • Negotiation of a $179 million senior construction loan in a private offering and the negotiation of a related mezzanine loan for the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

  • The Buccini/Pollin Group’s equity and/or debt financings or re-financings of 40+ full service and limited service hotels throughout the United States.

  • Choice Hotels International’s mezzanine loans to, and preferred equity investments in, franchisees and developers, as well as Choice’s own senior credit facility.

  • Represented a hotel development company in the restructuring and cross-collateralization of a $21 million loan from First Horizon Bank and First Tennessee Bank secured by hotel properties in Virginia and Florida.

  • RWN Development Group’s negotiation of construction financing loans from the Maryland Department of Housing and Urban Development and HarVest Bank, secured by the Hotel Brexton in Baltimore (for which RWN Development Group received the 2010 Historic Preservation Award from The Board of Directors of Baltimore Heritage, Inc.).

  • Capstone Development’s financings and re-financings of limited services hotels throughout the United States

  • The Salvation Army’s sale and related seller financing of a Homewood Suites hotel in Salt Lake City, UT.

Perspectives on Hospitality: Financing

Key Contacts