Hospitality & Leisure

Our Hospitality & Leisure team advises clients in all aspects of hospitality and leisure transactions and development, from acquisitions and dispositions to ownership, operations and financing. Our in-depth knowledge of the industry and long history of experience enables us to partner with our clients and provide tailored advice for achieving their strategic goals.

We represent developers, private equity investors, real estate investment trusts and other owners across a wide range of hospitality and leisure industry projects, including hotels and resorts, restaurants and bars, golf and country clubs, theme parks and water parks, family entertainment centers, ski resorts and marinas throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Our multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive solutions for our clients in the hospitality and leisure, including:

• Purchase and sale agreements
• Operating, management and franchise agreements
• Structuring and finance
• Restructuring
• Permits and government agency approvals
• Alcoholic beverage licensing and regulation
• Branding and intellectual property issues
• Domestic and international taxation
• Design and construction contracting and litigation
• Land use and entitlements
• Employment issues and litigation
• Federal, state and local tax laws
• Dispute resolution

Experience

Hotels

• Negotiated hundreds of management and franchise agreements with national and international operators and brands such as Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Intercontinental, Starwood, Omni, Interstate, Benchmark and others.
• Represented purchaser in the acquisition and financing of the Grand Wailea Resort and Spa located in Maui, Hawaii, and the Arizona Biltmore Resort located in Phoenix, Arizona.
• Represented purchaser in the acquisition, entitlement, development, construction and operation of the 1400 room Hilton Hotel connected to the Orange County Convention Center.

Restaurants

REITs

• Represented a non-listed publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in connection with an $85 million revolving line of credit facility which included a $50 million accordion feature and a $25 million letter of credit sub-facility and which was secured by four theme and water parks, six marinas and two ski resorts located in ten different states throughout the U.S.

Ski Resorts

• Negotiated ski resort leases and operating agreements with some of the most well-known marina and ski operators in North America.
• Handled the acquisitions of day ski operations such as Mountain High Ski Resort in California and Brighton Ski Resort in Utah.
• Handled the acquisitions of destination ski resorts such as Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado, Northstar-at-Tahoe Ski Resort in California, and Bretton Woods Mountain Resort in New Hampshire.

Golf and Country Clubs

• Negotiated operating leases and management agreements with operators/managers such as Billy Casper Golf, Meadowbrook Golf, Heritage Golf Group, Kemper Sports and Century Golf.
• Handled integration of golf course assets with other amenities within larger resort and fractional ownership developments with respect to golf play rights, financing and membership issues, including such projects as the Omni ChampionsGate Resort and Grand Lakes Resort located in Central Florida.

Theme Parks and Amusement Parks

• Represented a non-listed publicly traded REIT in connection with its acquisition and leaseback of seven formerly flagged Six Flags theme and water parks, and subsequent conversion from operating under a lease to operating under a management structure, a water park located in Honolulu, Hawaii and a theme park located in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
• Represented a non-listed publicly traded REIT in connection with its acquisition and leaseback of several family entertainment centers located throughout the U.S.

Marinas

• Represented various clients in the acquisition of 17 marina properties in seven different states, including licensing and permitting issues, structured expansion projects, and ground lease negotiations.