Lightstone Sued Over $100 Million Extended Stay Deal

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Lightstone Group LLC, a real estate company, and its founder David Lichtenstein were sued over a $100 million guaranty that was triggered when hotel chain Extended Stay Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year.

Lightstone and Lichtenstein granted the guaranty in favor of lenders and are liable for losses stemming from the bankruptcy, U.S. Bancorp said in the lawsuit filed yesterday in New York state court. Lightstone acquired Extended Stay in 2007.

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Banks Market Hilton, Extended Stay Mortgage Debt

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are marketing bonds tied to debt left over from the 2007 buyout of Hilton Worldwide in the largest sale of commercial-mortgage bonds of 2010.

The $2.66 billion unrated offering matures in as soon as 2.86 years, according to a person familiar with the sale, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t public.

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Extended Stay emerges from Chapter 11 after buyout

Extended Stay Inc. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a few months after the hotel chain was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firm Centerbridge Partners LP.


The group, which includes Paulson & Co. Inc. and Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI, paid $3.925 billion in July for the owner of 685 properties bearing the brands Extended Stay America, Extended Stay Deluxe and Homestead Studio Suites in the U.S. and Canada.

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Extended Stay Wins Court Approval of Plan to Sell Assets, Exit Bankruptcy

Extended Stay Inc., the bankrupt U.S. hotel operator, won approval of its plan to pay creditors by selling its assets to Centerbridge Partners LP, Paulson & Co. and Blackstone Group LP.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in New York today approved Extended Stay’s restructuring plan, which calls for the Centerbridge group to pay $3.9 billion for the company’s hotels.

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Starwood Plan For Extended Stay Gets Unsecured Creditors' Support

Extended Stay Inc.'s unsecured creditors are backing investor Starwood Capital Group's plan to take over the hotel chain, and they're seeking to end Extended Stay's exclusive control over its Chapter 11 case.

In court papers filed Tuesday, the committee representing the company's unsecured creditors said Extended Stay should lose its exclusive right to file a bankruptcy-exit plan so that creditors can consider Starwood's rival proposal to inject up to $700 million in cash into the company. Extended Stay is seeking to emerge from Chapter 11 with a $3.93 billion investment from Centerbridge Partners LP and other investors.

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Extended Stay seeks court OK of Centerbridge group bid

Extended Stay said the group, which emerged as the successful bidder at a court supervised auction last month, had also agreed to contribute certificates representing interests in a $4.1 billion mortgage loan for equity of the company.

"The Debtors (Extended Stay) are confident that the investment agreement embodying the successful bid is the highest and best bid submitted at the auction and, thus, provides maximum recoveries and distributions to creditors," the company said in court papers filed late on Tuesday.

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Centerbridge Group Wins Extended Stay Bankruptcy Auction

A group led by Centerbridge Partners LP prevailed in an auction to take Extended Stay Inc. out of bankruptcy protection, offering nearly $4 billion to clinch the purchase of the distressed hotel chain.


The investor consortium, which includes Paulson & Co. and Blackstone Group, put up $3.925 billion for Extended Stay, topping a rival bid from a group led by Starwood Capital Group, said people familiar with the matter.

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Extended Stay Says Starwood Capital Bid ’Better’ Than Rival’s Offer

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Investors led by Starwood Capital Group made a “better” bid for Extended Stay Inc. than an earlier offer from Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co., a lawyer for the bankrupt hotel chain said.


Extended Stay, which is seeking to sell its assets in an effort to emerge from bankruptcy protection, received the Starwood bid yesterday, the deadline for submitting competing offers for the hotel operator.

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Extended Stay Has ‘Number of Bidders’ Before Auction

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Extended Stay Hotels Inc. is talking to a “number of interested bidders” as it prepares for an auction of its assets later this month, the hotel chain’s lawyer said.

Jacqueline Marcus, Extended Stay’s bankruptcy lawyer, said today at a court hearing that the company has heard from “various parties” that are interested in making investment proposals for the company

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Goldman set to finance an Extended Stay bid

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N) is close to a deal to provide financing of $2.2 billion to one of the groups bidding for mid-priced U.S. hotel chain Extended Stay ESAIN.UL, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.


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Lawsuit: Bedbugs at Dubuque hotel

A Black Hawk County, Iowa, woman said she was seriously, painfully and permanently injured in a bedbug attack while staying at a Dubuque hotel.


Cassandra Cory filed suit Monday at the Dubuque County Courthouse against Dubuque Extended Stay Hotel, LLC, which operates the hotel in question -- MainStay Suites Hotel, 1275 Associates Drive.

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Starwood Capital Will Make New Bid for Extended Stay Hotels

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Starwood Capital Group LLC will make a new bid for Extended Stay Hotels Inc., which filed the largest bankruptcy case by a U.S. hotel owner, a Starwood lawyer said in court.


“We’re interested in bidding for this company,” Bruce Zirinksy said yesterday at a hearing in Manhattan in which U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck approved the bidding procedures. “We think we have already, through our prior bid, increased the company’s value by several hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Starwood’s earlier bid for the company, which had $7.6 billion in debt when it sought bankruptcy protection in June, was overtaken by one for $905.4 million from Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co. Zirinsky told Peck that he and Starwood learned on April 21 that Blackstone Group LP will become a third partner in the Centerbridge-Paulson bid for the company.

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Extended Stay Favors New Centerbridge Purchase Offer

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Extended Stay Hotels Inc. favors a new purchase offer by Centerbridge Partners LP as an improvement over one by Starwood Capital Group LLC, a lawyer for the bankrupt hotel chain said.


Centerbridge, a New York private-equity firm, and Paulson & Co., a New York asset manager, matched Starwood’s offer to invest as much as $905.4 million in the company and eliminated fees Starwood required, said Marcia L. Goldstein, a lawyer for Extended Stay.

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Extended Stay accepts offer from Starwood Capital

GREENWICH, Conn. — Extended Stay Hotels Inc. has decided to take an investment offer worth up to $905 million from a group led by Starwood Capital Group in order to exit bankruptcy, abandoning an earlier proposal from Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co.

The hotel chain said Thursday that the proposal from Starwood, TPG Capital and Five Mile Capital Partners would value it at about $3.9 billion after the deal closes. It also said the deal would strengthen its balance sheet, lower its debt to $2.8 billion from $7.4 billion and provide cash reserves that would be poured into its properties and operations.

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Starwood Capital makes bid for Extended Stay

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - An investor group led by Starwood Capital is saying its plan to take U.S. mid-priced hotel chain Extended Stay America Inc [ESAIN.UL] out of bankruptcy would be a better option than the company's plan, which is backed by rival private equity firms.

Starwood said in court papers filed on Saturday that it had submitted a "binding offer" to sponsor Extended Stay's plan of reorganization on Friday. Starwood said that it believes its offer would provide "substantially greater" value for the company's creditors, and more access to new cash for the company.

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Extended Stay Seeks to Exit Bankruptcy

Extended Stay Inc.'s senior lenders, who are owed more than $4 billion, will join Paulson & Co. and Centerbridge Partners to pump $450 million into the hotel chain and take it out of bankruptcy.

Extended Stay's proposed plan to exit bankruptcy protection, unveiled Friday in court papers, calls for Paulson and Centerbridge to invest $225 million into the struggling hotel operator for a 22.5% stake.

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‘Tranche Warfare’ Erupts as Property Owners Slide Into Default

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- When Lightstone Group bought Extended Stay Hotels Inc. in June 2007, it relied on more than $7 billion in debt financing to complete the $8 billion deal just weeks before the leveraged-buyout market imploded.

Today, Extended Stay’s creditors are battling each other after the company filed the largest bankruptcy case by a U.S. hotel owner. A company reorganization plan, which includes financing from Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co., may be challenged by a proposal from Starwood Capital Group LLC that is backed by some so-called mezzanine lenders

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Hotel Operator Buys Time

Starwood Capital Group has withdrawn its demand to end Extended Stay Inc.'s exclusive control over its bankruptcy case and indicated that it is now negotiating with the hotel operator.

In papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Starwood said it would no longer protest Extended Stay's request for an extension through May 3 to file its bankruptcy-exit plan.

Starwood revised its position after Extended Stay showed it would be more receptive to the investment firm's proposals for the company.

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Extended Stay in Restructuring Talks With Centerbridge, Paulson

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Extended Stay Hotels Inc., the bankrupt hotelier with $7.6 billion of debt, has been in talks with investment firms Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co. on a $400 million infusion of cash for restructuring.

A potential $200 million equity investment and $200 million backstopped rights offering have been “agreed to in principle,” the hotel chain said in a Jan. 12 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

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Starwood Capital Shows Interest In Extended Stay Hotels

Today’s big story (in my mind at least) is a Wall Street Journal article today that brought to light Starwood Capital’s new found interest in the Extended Stay bankruptcy battle. (I’m writing this directly from my blackberry so I can’t get a direct link).
In a nutshell – it states that Starwood Cap is joining a group of investors (mainly those involved with the first mortgage of the deal) in putting down funding to take the deal out of bankruptcy court.

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