Sunday, December 6, 2009

Costa Mesa's Wyndham Hotel Sells for $21M

The Wyndham Orange County hotel in Costa Mesa’s arts district has been sold at a foreclosure auction, trading hands at half of what the property was valued at three years ago.

Rosanna Inc., a real estate developer and investor that state records show as being based in Irvine, bought the 238-room hotel for $21 million at an auction held late last month.

Read more:

Experts predict Las Vegas Sands casino will dominate Singapore market

The world’s newest gaming venue will be halfway around the world — with a Las Vegas company in the center of the competition.

Experts are saying Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands will likely be the more visible and more enduring property of two that will open in Singapore in early 2010.

Read more:

Beal Bank makes its own bid for 3 Trump casinos

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A Dallas bank that was once allied with Donald Trump in a bid to buy the three Atlantic City Trump casinos out of bankruptcy protection now wants to buy them on its own.

Beal Bank offered Wednesday to convert its $486 million loan to the casinos into equity in Trump Entertainment Resorts.

Read more:

Ditching the Courtroom for California Pizza Kitchen

In 1985, after a grueling trial ended in a hung jury, criminal-defense lawyers Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield decided to call it quits. The long-time business partners, then in their 40s, embarked on a radically different second career: Selling California-style pizza with unusual toppings, such as smoked gouda, cilantro and barbecued chicken. The verdict? Delicious, according to customers who mobbed the first location in Beverly Hills and prompted the lawyers-turned-restaurateurs to expand throughout Southern California. Today, publicly traded California Pizza Kitchen operates more than 250 restaurants in 33 states and nine countries

Read more:

Rolling Stone to launch restaurant chain in L.A.

olling Stone is about to take a leap into the entertainment industry, starting with a large-scale restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood.

Owners of the venerable magazine hope to leverage its status as a preeminent chronicler of the rock music world and pop culture into a new business built on food and drinks. The first Rolling Stone outpost is set to open next summer at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Read more:

Former banker James Brent buys Folio Hotels

A former head of real estate at Citibank will today announce the acquisition of Folio Hotels as a platform for building a chain of up to 150 regional hotels across Britain.

James Brent, who set up his own investment business last year, is launching Akkeron Hotels in partnership with Colin Johnston, who owns the freeholds of four of the hotels being acquired with Folio.

Read more:

Boston Blackies files Chapter 11

(Crain’s) — Local bar and grill chain Boston Blackies is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors after an ambitious expansion plan that was fried by the recession.

Boston Blackies Management Co., which has eight locations in the Chicago area, list debts of $6.4 million against assets of about $17,000, according to a petition filed Nov. 24 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The chain’s largest creditor is General Electric Capital Corp., which is owed $5.6 million, according to the petition.

Read more:

Another potential suitor for the bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas

A potential new suitor for the bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas sent a letter to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol expressing a ``preliminary, non-binding indication of interest'' in acquiring the partially built 63-story casino resort project for $350 million.

In the Nov. 30 letter, Eugene Hill, chief executive of Craig Road Development Corp. in Las Vegas, said his company and ``certain investors'' are in discussions with the U.S. Army about acquiring a resort for military personnel and veterans.

Read more:

Hoteliers leading investment charge in `Haiti of tomorrow'

PETIONVILLE, Haiti -- Within the elegant brick walls of the new hillside Oasis, locals dine on lobster, sip $300-a-bottle Dom Perignon, then relax in a sleek lounge.

Just outside, the skeleton of an exclusive boutique hotel, featuring a rooftop helipad and 300-car garage, dominates the pastel orange landscape.

It could be a scene out of Coral Gables or South Beach. But it's not.

Read More: