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GOLDENTREE INSITE PARTNERS, AIMBRIDGE HOSPITALITY AND JF CAPITAL ADVISORS ACQUIRE SIX HOTELS
Properties Are Located In Prime Suburbs of Chicago, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Detroit
NEW YORK, July 27, 2007 –GoldenTree InSite Partners, Aimbridge Hospitality and JF Capital Advisors announced today that their firms have acquired six full-service hotels containing over 1,000 rooms. All of the properties are located within prime suburban neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas. Two of the hotels are located outside of Chicago. The others are located outside of Charlotte, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Detroit. This is the second portfolio of hotels the three firms have acquired together during the past year. Lehman Brothers provided the debt financing.
Four of the hotels, located in Schaumburg, Illinois, Wood Dale, Illinois, Charlotte, North Carolina and Brookfield, Wisconsin, were recently converted to Doubletree®. The other two, located in Overland Park, Kansas and Novi, Michigan, are Wyndham Garden Hotels®.
“We continue to see very good relative value in transitional hotels,” said Tom Shapiro, President of GoldenTree InSite Partners. “We see great opportunity in this portfolio. We believe we can move income substantially through top-line growth, expense controls and capital investment.”
These six assets were part of the eight-hotel portfolio that launched Aimbridge Hospitality into the hotel management arena in 2003. “All of the hotels have benefited from significant capital investment and are still experiencing considerable growth in both ADR and occupancy as a result,” said Dave Johnson, President and CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality. “We are excited that through this acquisition we are also able to extend our role as manager of these great assets that helped start our company four years ago.”
Commenting on today’s announcement, Jonathan Falik, CEO of JF Capital Advisors, noted: “We are planning to harvest the benefits of the prior owner’s extensive capital improvement program as well as the recent conversion of several hotels to the Doubletree® flag. Our partnership has also allocated several million dollars for further upgrades to the properties.”
About GoldenTree InSite Partners
GoldenTree InSite Partners is an international real estate investment firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was formed in February 2005 in partnership with GoldenTree Asset Management. GoldenTree InSite Partners pursues value-added real estate opportunities through direct equity investment and non-traditional lending activities. To date, the firm has committed capital to residential, retail, industrial, office, hotel and mixed-use projects. GoldenTree Asset Management, with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, manages a variety of absolute return strategies, which invest in bank debt, high yield bonds, distressed debt, middle market loans, equities and real estate and employs over 160 people. GoldenTree manages approximately $10.5 billion as of July 1, 2007, of which $8.6 billion are absolute return assets. For more information on GoldenTree InSite Partners, please visit the company’s website at www.goldentreeinsite.com.
About Aimbridge Hospitality
Aimbridge Hospitality is a hotel real estate and management company created to identify investment opportunities throughout the United States. Aimbridge provides management, asset management, capital renovation, supervision, accounting and consulting services for its strategic partners. Aimbridge currently operates hotel properties in the Doubletree®, Wyndham and Hilton Garden Inn Brands. Aimbridge also manages a number of independent hotels, including the Phoenix Inn & Suites brand of hotels and has several projects under development in the Starwood and Hilton Family of Brands. Aimbridge’s current portfolio extends over 11 states. For more information on Aimbridge Hospitality, please visit the company’s Web site at www.aimbridgehospitality.com.
About JF Capital Advisors
JF Capital Advisors, headquartered in New York City, is a hospitality investment and advisory firm. Prior to founding JF Capital Advisors, Jonathan Falik was a Vice President in the Real Estate Investment Banking division of Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. Together with Joe Weinberger, the principals of JF Capital Advisors have completed over $12 billion of mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions in the hospitality sector. For more information on JF Capital Advisors, please visit the company’s Web site at www.jfcap.com.