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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

It seems that old is new again !  In cities throughout the U.S. buildings originally built for a specific purpose: banks, office buildings, schools and warehouses are being converted or "re-purposed" into other uses, but in particular into restaurants and hotels.  In Cincinnati alone there are three projects undergoing renovation for their new life as…

Earlier this fall, the National Park Service celebrated the 35th anniversary of the popular Federal Preservation Tax Incentives Program, which has helped in the preservation of historic structures across the U.S. and particularly in Ohio with its wealth of historic buildings. Because of the program’s numerous possible benefits and its important role in fueling …

  Ohio’s legislature recently approved, and Governor Kasich signed, a fiscal year 2012-2013 budget that includes a renewal of the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program(the “Program”) for coming years in perpetuity. The new budget provides for annual credits to eligible projects worth up to $60 million, which matches prior years’ funding allowances. Several modifications to…

On November 6, 2009, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The new law extends the first-time homebuyer temporary federal tax credit for qualifying home purchases to April 30, 2010 and expands the eligibility requirements for purchasers.

Under the new law an eligible taxpayer must buy, or enter into a …

Ohio’s Budget Bill, signed by Governor Ted Strickland on July 17, contained provisions authorizing Ohio’s first state-run New Markets Tax Credit, as well as substantially revising the state’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit. Here is a breakdown of each:

New Markets Tax Credit

 

Modeled after the federal New Markets Tax Credit, the state program allows up to a nearly $1 million cumulative, nonrefundable tax credit for an entity that holds an investment in a “qualified community development entity” over the next seven years. Like the federal Credit, the Program is intended to aid development in low-income areas where new projects are typically more difficult to finance.

 

Only insurance companies and financial institutions are eligible to receive the credit, and they may do so by holding a “qualified equity investment.” A “qualified equity investment” is an investment in a “qualified community development entity” (i.e. an entity with an allocation agreement under the Federal Credit that does business in Ohio) that: (1) is acquired solely for cash after July 17, 2009; (2) has at least 85% of its purchase price used to invest in low-income communities; and (3) is designated by the issuer as a qualified equity investment. 

 

To receive the credit, the community development entity must invest in a “qualified active low income community business” (“QALICB”). The intention behind this provision is to ensure the credit is used for new projects that actively promote job creation in the state. The QALICB definition excludes from such businesses those that derive 15% of annual revenue from real estate, such as developers. The language may permit a developer to be a QALICB, however, if it is the end user of the property through a sale-leaseback transaction. The program permits investment in a special purpose entity (“SPE”), principally owned by the property user, if the SPE was formed solely to rent or sell the property back to the principal user. Therefore, a developer could form an SPE and lease the property to itself as the owner of a separate end user entity, so long as the user is not itself a real estate developer.

 

An eligible entity may receive the credit if it holds such an investment on the first day of January in 2010 through 2016. The Program credit is equal to the “applicable percentage” of the purchase price. In years 2010 and 2011, however, the applicable percentage is zero. In 2012, the credit is seven percent, and in 2013 through 2016 the credit is eight percent. At the end of seven years, the entity may receive a 39% credit on a statutorily capped maximum investment price of $2,564,000, for a total credit of up to $999,960. The total amount of credits allocated by the state under the Program each year may not exceed $10 million.

 

Ohio joins a number of states that offer a New Markets Tax Credit in conjunction with the federal Credit. The Program should be a useful tool, along with the Historic Preservation and Low Income Housing Tax Credits, for encouraging investment in underserviced areas.

 

 Continue Reading Ohio Creates New Markets Tax Credit and Revises Historic Tax Credit

 In Woda Ivy Glen Limited Partnership v. Fayette County Board of Revision (2009), 121 Ohio St.3d 175, the Supreme Court of Ohio considered whether restrictions on real property resulting from participation in the federal low-income housing tax credit program should be taken into account when appraising the property for real estate tax purposes.  The…

Recent activity in Washington, D.C. suggests that the federal government is moving one step closer to regulating greenhouse gas emissions.  US EPA has determined that greenhouse gas emissions are pollutants that endanger the public’s health and welfare.  US EPA’s endangerment finding could lead to regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.  Alternatively, a new cap-and-trade bill has been introduced, which would remove greenhouse gases from regulation under the Clean Air Act, but would require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 85% from 2005 levels by 2050. 

What does the potential regulation of greenhouse gases mean for real estate development? 

INCREASED ENERGY COSTS !

Energy-utility companies will be greatly impacted by regulation of greenhouse gases.  Particularly, in Ohio and other Midwest states, where electricity production is almost entirely dependent upon coal-burning, reducing greenhouse gas emissions could be quite costly.  Moody’s has estimated that consumer electricity costs will rise between 15-30% as a result of any cap-and-trade regulation.

With the expectation of increased energy costs, real estate developers should look to energy-efficient building systems or alternative energy sources as ways to reduce these costs.  The Ohio Department of Development and the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority offer grants to help offset some of the initial costs for installing alternative energy sources.  Additionally, tax credits are available for certain projects.

If you would like to learn more about potential climate change regulation and Ohio funding for alternative energy projects, these topics will be presented at the CREW of Greater Cincinnati 2009 Midwest Regional Conference.  The conference will take place April 23-25, 2009 at the Cincinnati Hilton Netherland Plaza.  Other topics presented at the Conference include:  "Successful Urban Renaissance Developments"; "Diversity by Design: Successful Inclusion Projects"; "Case Studies in Brownfield Redevelopment"; and "Capital Markets — Effects from Washington Decision Making".  Continue Reading Potential Effect of Climate Change Regulation on Real Estate Development