Hard Rock foreclosure sale rescheduled

The proposed foreclosure sale of the Hard Rock hotel-casino in Las Vegas has been rescheduled from Monday to Tuesday — assuming a New York state judge in Manhattan allows the foreclosure to proceed.
Attorneys are waiting for Bernard Fried, a New York State Supreme Court justice, to rule on the Las Vegas Hard Rock's motion that the foreclosure be blocked. In New York, the Supreme Court is a trial court similar to Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. The highest court in New York is the state Court of Appeals.
If Fried allows the foreclosure to proceed, it's now set for 4 p.m. Tuesday, New York time, on the New York City courthouse steps.

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Related articles

• Hard Rock files lawsuit to stop foreclosure (hospitalitybusinessnews.com)
• Lenders file foreclosure notice against Hard Rock Hotel (hospitalitybusinessnews.com)

Claremont files for bankruptcy

The Claremont Hotel & Spa, a fixture in the Berkeley hills since 1915, was part of a luxury hotel group that filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The Claremont and seven other resorts were part of a $6.6 billion acquisition by Morgan Stanley in 2007. When debt of $1.5 billion came due yesterday, lenders foreclosed on five of the properties (three other properties with longer-term debt did not file for Chapter 11 protection).

The lenders, led by hedge fund Paulson & Co, stated in a press release that they intend to work down the debt and position the hotels to benefit as the economy improves. The last few years have been particularly bruising for the luxury end of the travel industry, and the Claremont has suffered from poor occupancy rates.

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Lenders file foreclosure notice against Hard Rock Hotel

A group of lenders has filed a notice of foreclosure against the financially struggling Hard Rock Hotel, which would give the lenders the right to take control of the hotel-casino in a public auction scheduled for Feb. 7.

The lending group, NRFC HRH Holdings LLC, controls a piece of the $1.36 billion loan used to acquire, renovate and expand the Hard Rock. A joint venture including Morgans Hotel Group and investment banking firm DLJ Merchant Banking Partners bought the Hard Rock in 2007 with the goal of revamping the property and boosting profit by catering to well-heeled guests.

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Boston W Hotel owners stave off lender's foreclosure effort

A US Bankruptcy Court judge rebuffed Prudential Insurance Co.'s efforts to foreclose on the developer of the W Hotel & Residences, which filed bankruptcy protection last spring after being unable to sell most of its Theatre District condos.

Judge Joan Feeney ruled that the developer, SW Boston Hotel Venture, is making progress stabilizing its finances and should be allowed to continue to do so without the threat of foreclosure by Prudential. The insurance company had provided a $192 million loan for the development of the W Hotel and 123 condominiums on Stuart Street in Boston, and is the primary creditor in bankruptcy proceedings.

SW Hotel Venture "has shown sufficient progress during this Chapter 11 case to support the conclusion that there is a reasonable possibility of a reorganization within a reasonable time," Feeney wrote in a 50-page ruling issued today.

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Bank of America says Cornhusker Marriott's owner in default

Bank of America says it is entitled to a place in front of other creditors of The Cornhusker Marriott hotel because the hotel's owner has defaulted on a $30 million secured loan.

The bank's assertion of a secured position in front of other creditors is the latest in a series of financial maneuvers staking claims to The Cornhusker Marriott's revenue. It isn't clear how the owner's legal and financial issues will affect the hotel's operations, if at all, and how they will play out.

The court filings did little to clarify the financial condition of The Cornhusker Marriott's proprietor, Shubh Hotels Lincoln, and its owner, Atul Bisaria, who bought The Cornhusker Marriott in 2004, except to reveal his company is in default. That doesn't necessarily mean the secured creditor intends to force the immediate collection of what's owed nor to force liquidation or reorganization.

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Receivers appointed to two hotels in Lynch Hotel Group

An unknown number of jobs may be at risk after receivers were appointed to two hotels within the Lynch Hotel Group.

The two affected hotels are The Clare Inn in Dromoland, Co Clare and Breaffy House Hotel in Co Mayo.

The chain employs 500 people in total at seven hotels. It's list of properties also includes the West County Hotel in Ennis, The Ocean Cove in Kilkee; George Boutique, The South Court in Limerick and Breaffy Woods in Mayo. These hotels are not affected by the appointment of a receiver to the Clare Inn and Breaffy House Hotel.

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Ownership of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund V Resorts at Stake

Investors jockeying to control the fate of eight huge U.S. resorts are pushing to get the Feb. 1 due date of $1.5 billion of debt on those properties extended.

At stake is ownership of the CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc. portfolio, including Hawaii's 780-room Grand Wailea resort and the 739-room Arizona Biltmore resort in Phoenix.

The CNL resorts are owned by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund V, which financed its 2007 purchase of the portfolio by saddling the properties with $3.3 billion of debt. The restructuring of that debt will likely be one of the largest in the commercial-real-estate market this year.

The latest twist in the CNL saga came earlier this month, when investors led by Paulson & Co. and Winthrop Realty Trust reached an agreement with the Morgan Stanley fund to take control of CNL, exchanging their $600 million of CNL's corporate mezzanine debt for the company's equity, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter.

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Bank-owned hotels in San Diego on the rise

Hotel occupancies and revenues may be on the rebound, but that hasn’t kept foreclosures at bay in San Diego County, which has the second highest number of bank-owned properties in the state, according to a lodging report released Friday.

By the end of 2010, 16 hotels accounting for nearly 1,700 rooms had been foreclosed on, a 433 percent over 2009 when there were just three real estate-owned hotels, reported Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks defaults and foreclosures among California hotels. The county was second only to San Bernardino, which had 17 bank-owned hotels, Atlas said.

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Luxury hotels in Telluride, Colo., to close at height of ski season

File photo taken on Dec. 15, 2010 shows Hanno Douschan of Austria airborne as he descends the course during Snowboard Cross Qualification at the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup in Telluride, Colorado.

CAPTION

By Doug Pensinger, Getty Images North America

After two tough years for luxury hotels, the $200 million Capella Telluride hotel in the ski destination of Telluride, Colo., - will shut down, despite the fact that skiers booked more rooms this season than a year ago.



The Telluride Daily Planet reports that the 100-room Capella Telluride hotel, as well as the 32-room Inn at Lost Creek - both in the heart of Telluride's Mountain Village - will be shuttered as of Jan. 31 as part of the ongoing foreclosure process

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Los Gatos Hotel Corp. Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

SUMMARY: On Monday, Los Gatos Hotel Corporation voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in San Jose, California. The company was formed in 2000 to develop the Hotel Los Gatos, a 72-room boutique hotel located in Los Gatos, California. The property, which was built in 2002, also contains 2,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, Dio Deka (a Michelin star greek restaurant), and a 3,600 square foot spa and fitness facility. A courthouse auction of the hotel property had been scheduled to occur on December 7, 2010, but was delayed until January 31, 2011 at the last minute. According to bankruptcy court filings, the property was managed by Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Inc. prior to the chapter 11 filing (although the property is still listed as a Joie de Vivre hotel on its website). Los Gatos Hotel Corp. has now retained Folio Hospitality Management to manage the hotel.

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Foreclosure wave has big impact Tucson on commercial properties

More than 11,000 Tucson-area property owners received notice that they'd fallen behind on loan payments last year, numbers from the Pima County Recorder's Office show.

The bulk of those are residential delinquencies (see related story on Page D7), but the foreclosure wave has had a drastic impact on commercial properties as well. Affected properties run the gamut from luxury lots to master-planned communities to hotels and apartment complexes.

The forces that led to the money crunch are largely the same as those for homeowners: plummeting property values and a lack of financing options.

Take, for example, The Passages of Tucson, a giant mixed-use project planned in Vail, that recently defaulted on $7 million in loans.

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Hotel St. Regis in Detroit to be sold for $850,000

A landmark hotel in Detroit is set to be sold for a bargain-basement price next week.

The Hotel St. Regis is to be sold for $850,000 after a Thursday auction for the bank-owned property.
Bidding started at $350,000, with three groups bidding on it, said Barry Lefkowitz, managing director of the Southfield-based turnaround firm BBK, which is acting as receiver for the 225-room hotel.

The winning bidder was St. Regis Sky Group LLC, Lefkowitz said. According to state records, the president and CEO of Lakeshore TolTest Corp., Avinash Rachmale, is part of that investment group.

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Previous owners of Resorts Casino Hotel were planning to shut down before sale

ATLANTIC CITY — The former owner of Resorts Casino Hotel was secretly preparing to close down the troubled gaming hall just days before new buyers took control in December, newly filed court documents show.
Resorts International Hotel Inc. filed a confidential petition with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission “to discontinue all gaming, lodging, public food and beverage, entertainment and other guest operations” at 6 a.m. Dec. 2.
The petition was sealed and never made public. It was quietly withdrawn by Resorts International on Dec. 1, the day the commission approved the $31.5 million sale of Resorts to a new ownership group headed by gaming executive Dennis Gomes and New York real estate magnate Morris Bailey, collectively known as DGMB Casino LLC.

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Hotel Mirrors Detroit's Woes

DETROIT—The auto show that begins this week gives Detroit the chance to show off a hometown industry on the mend and a downtown flush with upscale hotel rooms.

But many conventioneers' image of Detroit may be shaped by the dark and vacant former Hotel Pontchartrain, directly across from the Cobo Center convention hall. Fully renovated in 2007 then shuttered in 2009, the steel-and-glass hotel stands as a conspicuous symbol of Detroit's stunted redevelopment efforts.

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Eva Longoria’s Restaurant = No Más

Eva Longoria's Las Vegas restaurant Beso and its nightclub Eve have filed for bankruptcy.

Beso LLC, in which Longoria is a 32.33 percent investor, has $2.5 million in assets, but $5.6 million in liabilities, according to bankruptcy papers filed Thursday.

Longoria is one of the biggest creditors — none of them secured — listed in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

She made a cash loan of $1,074,247 to the company, and also paid $375,000 in legal fees for the business, according to court records.

According to her publicist Liza Anderson, Longoria had been “dealing with the fallout stemming from two former allegedly fraudulent ex-partners” tied to Beso and Eve at the Crystals Plaza in MGM's CityCenter, which led to the bankruptcy filing, handled by Hollywood attorney Robert Shapiro.

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Scotts Valley Hilton scheduled for foreclosure sale Jan. 18

SCOTTS VALLEY - Lenders are foreclosing on the owners of the 187-room Scotts Valley Hilton, setting a Jan. 18 sale date for an unpaid debt of $16.8 million.

According to default notice filed with the county, $1.2 million was owed as of mid-July.
Statewide, 582 hotels were in default or foreclosed in the third quarter, up 71 percent from a year ago, according to the Atlas Hospitality Group based in Irvine.

The fourth-quarter survey has not been posted yet but Atlas Hospitality founder Alan Reay predicted an uptick for the first three to six months of 2011.

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Phoenix Hilton in foreclosure

The original lender in the foreclosure of Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort and its adjacent golf club took ownership of the north Phoenix property following its Dec. 29 auction after the resort's former owner defaulted on a $55.2 million loan.

C-III Asset Management LLC, the beneficiary, became the property's owner after no one placed a starting bid of $51 million. The beneficiary then formed Top24 - 7th Street Phoenix LLC.

Details about the Delaware-based company were unavailable. Officials from C-III Asset Management did not respond to interview requests Wednesday.

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Bidders show for auction, but don't buy shuttered Niagar Falls hotel

NIAGARA FALLS -- If the shuttered Hotel Niagara in the heart of the city tourist district is to be restored, it's going to take more time.
The bank that holds the mortgage, after a failed attempt by a Texas couple to renovate the 12-story lodging on Rainbow Boulevard, kept control of the property during a foreclosure auction this afternoon at City Hall.
Several potential bidders who showed up for the auction -- including Falls hotelier and former gubernatorial candidate Carl P. Paladino -- were unwilling to place a bid at or above the $1 million minimum offer the State Bank of Texas was willing to take during the public proceeding.
The bank lost $3.29 million as part of the $4.6 million purchase in 2007 by Houston-based Amidee Hotel Niagara, a limited liability corporation owned by James T. Cook Jr. and his wife, Judith B. Cook.

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Bankrupt Se San Diego hotel may be put up for sale

The financially troubled owner of the tony Sè San Diego hotel, dogged by controversy since before it opened two years ago, wants to put the downtown high rise up for sale.

The upscale boutique hotel, along with an adjacent building in which the House of Blues is located, could fetch up to $50 million, according to one Southern California broker, although that is significantly less than the $150 million cost to develop the high-profile project

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Majority Owner of Budget Portfolio Properties files for bankruptcy

A joint venture with a majority stakeholder based in Pittsburgh has filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid a $69 million foreclosure filing by Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. Downtown-based FFC Capital Corp. is the portfolio manager and has a 90 percent stake in Budget Portfolio Properties LLC, a venture that owns 22 hotels in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and Texas.

Crain's Chicago Business reported this week that Citizens Bank had filed foreclosure cases for properties around Chicago seeking a return on a loan of nearly $66 million with accrued interest and late fees, according to filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sherman, Texas.

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