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Please join us for this informative webinar today.  If you can not participate you can access the webinar through our sponsor. The link is the title to the webinar.

 

Hotel Financing Structures and Options in the Hospitality Industry Upswing

Leveraging CMBS Capital Market Financing, Preferred Equity, Tax Credit Funds and EB-5 Financing

The hotel industry is in an upswing as this cyclical industry continues to heat up and is one of the most active real estate segments in today’s economy. How can counsel pave the way for hotel clients to identify and negotiate financing deals?

While financing from traditional lenders is relatively scarce, savvy industry insiders are finding additional sources of financing and are driving a new era of innovation in real estate finance. Preferred equity investments, tax credit funds and EB-5 financingare common.

Commercial mortgaged-back-securities loans, historically an important hotel financing source, came back into play in recent years. New CMBS loans are more complex and difficult to navigate than before, but can be a critical source of financing for certain deals.

Listen as our authoritative panel of real estate finance attorneys guides you through the various financing tools and sources of money available for hotel financing, including CMBS financing, tax credit funds, EB-5 financing and preferred equity investments. The panel will also address legal issues that can present financing challenges in this post-recession environment. 

Outline

  1. Pre-recession/recession
    1. Easy money
    2. Cleaning out the distressed properties and loans
  2. Current available sources of financing
    1. Private investor dollars (preferred equity)
    2. Tax credit funds (new market/historic tax credits)
    3. EB-5 financing
    4. CMBS capital market financing
  3. CMBS type loan structures and requirements
  4. Collateralizing the management and franchise agreements
    1. Comfort letters
    2. Subordinations
    3. Collateral assignments
  5. Bankruptcy remote organizational structures and covenants

Faculty

Bradley Kaplan, Partner
Ulmer & Berne, Cincinnati

Mr. Kaplan assists owners, operators and receivers of hotel, office and industrial properties with their real estate, finance, leasing, construction and organizational challenges; specifically, negotiating and drafting hospitality, purchase, sale, financing, leasing, construction, franchise and management agreements.  He serves as general counsel and national real estate counsel to several domestic and internationally based public and privately held companies.  

 

Continue Reading Hotel Financing Seminar

Nonrecourse loans are popular among commercial real estate owners because the Lender agrees only to seek recourse against the real estate and other collateral securing the loan in a default or loss situation. Unless the loss is caused by a “bad boy act”, the borrower and/or principal will not be held personally liable. Bad boy…

            As the filing of Chapter 11 cases continues to be rare, state court alternatives for liquidation of assets continue to grow in popularity. State court alternatives typically provide a more expeditious and less expensive forum for secured lenders to direct the liquidation of their collateral—for example, state court receivership sales avoid the United States Trustee…

Purchasing foreclosed real estate has never been easy or risk-free. In Ohio, all purchases are “AS-IS” and purchasers generally do not have an opportunity to inspect the property. A 10% cash deposit is due upon bidding and payment in full is due within thirty days with the threat of contempt of court if the purchase price is not paid. And the risks to purchasers are increasing.

 

Recently several banks have elected to stop residential foreclosures due to questions about their internal procedures. The attorneys general of all 50 states are now conducting a joint investigation into possible false or unverified information contained in affidavits and improper notarization of affidavits. Remedies for homeowners whose homes have been wrongfully foreclosed are determined by state law, but may include an unwinding of the foreclosure and returning legal title to the borrower. But what happens when that home has been purchased by a third party at foreclosure sale? Or flipped to another owner?

 

 

Continue Reading Foreclosed from Foreclosure?

Remember Enron and off-balance-sheet accounting scandals? The efforts to clean up these accounting practices are still in the works and are about to hit the world of commercial real estate—arguably at the worst possible time. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) (which is endowed with the power to decide U.S. generally accepted accounting principles) and its international counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are hoping to enact a new lease accounting standard by 2013. The Securities and Exchange Commission in a 2005 report to Congress estimated that the current lease accounting standards which went into effect in 1976 allow tenants to keep about $1.25 trillion in future liabilities off-balance-sheet.   

Currently, a lease may be shown on a tenant’s balance sheet as either a capital lease which is treated on the balance sheet much like a finance transaction or as an operating lease which is mostly off-balance sheet. The FASB and IASB believe that investors are not getting a full picture of a tenant’s obligations when the lease is treated as an operating lease because the lease payments are recognized as an expense when they are incurred or paid rather than all of the rental payments for the term appearing as a liability on the balance sheet. 

 

 Continue Reading ELIMINATING OFF-BALANCE-SHEET ACCOUNTING OF LEASES

In what has become an ongoing series here on the UB REAL Blog, we wanted to issue another update on the now year old Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, better known as the land bank.  Over the past six months, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank has obtained more properties and received millions in funding from the federal government.

A South Euclid lot donated to the Cuyahoga County Land Bank is soon to become one of the program’s community gardens. As of January 13, 2010, the property is the first of its kind to complete both the acquisition and disposition processes. The 50×108 lot, located at 3915 Warrendale Road, was given a market value of $22,800.

 

 Continue Reading Cuyahoga County Land Bank Update

The typical co-tenancy clause provides that if occupancy at a shopping center falls below a certain level and/or certain other key tenants close, the tenant gets rent relief and at some point the right to terminate its lease. In the current retail environment, all sophisticated tenants demand some sort of co-tenancy protection.  Landlords have generally…

Thank you to our friend Drew Stacey of First Place Bank for reminding us of the extension of the The First-Time Homebuyer Credit for the benefit of Military families for an additional year through May 1, 2011.  According to the IRS:

"In general, you can claim this credit if:

  • You bought your main home in the United States after 2008 and before May 1, 2010 (before July 1, 2010, if you entered into a written binding contract before May 1, 2010), and

  • You (and your spouse if married) did not own any other main home during the 3-year period ending on the date of purchase.

No credit is allowed for a home bought after April 30, 2010 (after June 30, 2010, if you entered into a written binding contract before May 1, 2010). However, if you (or your spouse) are on qualified official extended duty outside the United States for at least 90 days after 2008 and before May 1, 2010, you have an extra year to buy a home and claim the credit. In other words, you must buy the home before May 1, 2011 (before July 1, 2011, if you entered into a written binding contract before May 1, 2011)."


 

Continue Reading FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER TEMPORARY FEDERAL TAX CREDIT EXTENDED AND EXPANDED FOR MILITARY FAMILIES