JERUSALEM – Israeli-Canadian businessman Gil Blutrich recently purchased Toronto’s venerable King Edward Hotel for the bargain price of $48-million.
Blutrich’s Toronto-based Skyline International Development Inc., a subsidiary of the Tel Aviv-based Mishorim Developments Ltd., which he also controls, bought the 298-room century-old landmark – where Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono held their 1969 Give peace a chance bed-in and where Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor – in a distress sale.
Lehman Bros., the New York investment bank that had bought the property for $62.5 million in 2006 and then spent an estimated $17 million in renovations, went bankrupt during the 2008 global financial meltdown.
Read more:
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Judge sides with city on Tavern on the Green name
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that New York City owns the rights to the name of the landmark restaurant in Central Park, Tavern on the Green.
Closed since Jan. 1, the restaurant will be able to keep its famous name when it reopens. It is unclear, however, when the landmark eatery will once again welcome diners. Its new operator, Dean Poll, has not yet signed an agreement with the city or the union that represents the restaurant's 400 employees.
Read more:
Closed since Jan. 1, the restaurant will be able to keep its famous name when it reopens. It is unclear, however, when the landmark eatery will once again welcome diners. Its new operator, Dean Poll, has not yet signed an agreement with the city or the union that represents the restaurant's 400 employees.
Read more:
Fontainebleau Miami Said to Offer Restructuring Plan
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Fontainebleau Miami Beach owners Dubai World and Jeffrey Soffer, chief executive officer of Turnberry Ltd., offered the resort’s lenders a debt- restructuring plan that includes $100 million of new equity, according to three people with knowledge of the talks.
The Fontainebleau, which served as a backdrop for the “Scarface” and “Goldfinger” movies, borrowed more than $620 million to help fund renovations and hasn’t made loan payments since September, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Dubai World, half-owner of the resort, is leading negotiations with lenders, the people said.
Read more:
The Fontainebleau, which served as a backdrop for the “Scarface” and “Goldfinger” movies, borrowed more than $620 million to help fund renovations and hasn’t made loan payments since September, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Dubai World, half-owner of the resort, is leading negotiations with lenders, the people said.
Read more:
Hotel owners and operators have their banks over a barrel
FEW industries are as adept as hotels at providing tempting offers—a well-stocked minibar, for instance—that lead to regret the next day. Lenders to the industry are now firmly in the regret phase. Over the next year banks in Europe and America may be forced to write down billions in bad loans, further impairing already strained balance-sheets. In many cases they are also likely to become the proprietors of debt-ridden hotels.
Read more:
Read more:
Armani Said to Delay Hotel in Dubai Tower by More Than a Month
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, due to open in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa today, will be delayed by more than a month, said two people with knowledge of the plan.
The luxury hotel, occupying 10 floors of the world’s tallest building, is now scheduled to open on April 22, said the people, who declined to be identified because there hasn’t been an official announcement.
Read more:
The luxury hotel, occupying 10 floors of the world’s tallest building, is now scheduled to open on April 22, said the people, who declined to be identified because there hasn’t been an official announcement.
Read more:
Accor sells five hotels
This week Accor has sold five hotels to Invesco Real Estate for a total of €154 million; this transaction will enable the company to reduce its adjusted net debt by €93 million over 2010. The 307 Novotel Muenchen City in Munich, Germany; the 149-room Novotel Roma la Rustica in Rome, Italy; and the 97-room Mercure Corso Trieste, also in Rome, were sold under a sale and variable leaseback agreement for a combined €57 million. The 175-room Mercure Zabatova in Bratislava, Slovakia, which is still under construction, was also sold under a sale and variable leaseback agreement for €17 million. And the 384-room Pullman Paris La Défense in Paris, France, was sold for €80 million. All of the hotels will still be operated by Accor.
Lodgian Receives Audit Report with Going Concern Explanation
ATLANTA, March 17, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Lodgian, Inc. (NYSE Amex Equities: LGN) today announced that the audit report of its independent registered public accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP, included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009 (the "Form 10-K"), while expressing an unqualified opinion regarding the company's audited financial statements, identified matters which raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. The company's announcement does not represent any changes or amendment to its 2009 financial statements or to its Form 10-K which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2010.
Read more:
Read more:
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Trump Hotel Collection expands into SOHO & Panama.
Continued aggressive growth includes recent opening of Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk with renovation NYC flagship; Toronto to Open in 2011.
Trump Hotel Collection will add two new properties to its growing portfolio this year, on the heels of its successful opening in Waikiki and in the midst of a $30 million refurbishment of its flagship New York City property.
Read more:
Trump Hotel Collection will add two new properties to its growing portfolio this year, on the heels of its successful opening in Waikiki and in the midst of a $30 million refurbishment of its flagship New York City property.
Read more:
Buyout for Benihana?
After months of enduring the stock-price equivalent of ground chuck, investors in Japanese steakhouse Benihana are being offered prime rib in the form of a buyout offer from a disciple of billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn.
Russell Glass, a former executive with Icahn Associates who's now the founder and head of New York investment firm RDG Capital, has offered to buy the Miami-based chain for $7 a share, a 20 percent premium over the current stock price, The Post has learned.
Read more:
Russell Glass, a former executive with Icahn Associates who's now the founder and head of New York investment firm RDG Capital, has offered to buy the Miami-based chain for $7 a share, a 20 percent premium over the current stock price, The Post has learned.
Read more:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Hotwire Hotel Rate Report - February
Hotel rates in the U.S. and Canadian cities change quickly, especially in this economy. The Hotwire Hotel Rate Report pinpoints cities where rates have dropped, making it easier for you to see where to find the best values. To compile the report we look at rates from a wide range of the top markets, compare pricing trends from the previous year, and factor in month-by-month price fluctuations. The report shows the destinations that have the biggest hotel price drops each month.
read more:
read more:
Monday, March 15, 2010
Why ordering room-service breakfast in hotels can be dangerous
The next time you pick up a pen in your hotel room to select coffee, eggs and whole wheat toast on the room-service-breakfast order form, think again.
Hotel lawyer Stephen Barth, writing on on his HospitalityLawyer.org blog, cautions hoteliers from letting guests order their breakfasts by using those old-fashioned, door-hanger forms - and his argument has nothing to do with wasting paper. Here's why his advice raises red flags for travelers...
Hotel lawyer Stephen Barth, writing on on his HospitalityLawyer.org blog, cautions hoteliers from letting guests order their breakfasts by using those old-fashioned, door-hanger forms - and his argument has nothing to do with wasting paper. Here's why his advice raises red flags for travelers...
Celebrity to end cruise out of Charleston early as outbreak continues
Celebrity Cruises is ending the current voyage of the Celebrity Mercury early as it continues to grapple with an outbreak of stomach illness that now has marred three voyages in a row.
Several travel agents with customers on board the 1,870-passenger vessel tell USA TODAY it is skipping today's port call in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and sailing straight for it's home port of Charleston due to another flare-up of a stomach bug marked by diarrhea and vomiting -- presumably the same one that plagued the last two voyages of the ship
Several travel agents with customers on board the 1,870-passenger vessel tell USA TODAY it is skipping today's port call in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and sailing straight for it's home port of Charleston due to another flare-up of a stomach bug marked by diarrhea and vomiting -- presumably the same one that plagued the last two voyages of the ship
Papa Bello to launch fast casual Indian concept
Papa Bello Enterprises Inc. has announced that the company has closed its acquisition of Royal India Express, a San Diego-based fast casual Indian restaurant concept located in the Horton Plaza Shopping Mall in the Gas Lamp Quarter of downtown San Diego.
Royal India Express is another successful restaurant concept from the Kambo Brothers, which also created and manages The Kebab Cafe, one of Papa Bello Enterprises restaurant concepts. RIE offers a competitive business model, taking full advantage of fast casual restaurant dining as well as catering, allowing the restaurant to bring its products out of the restaurant and into the home or business.
Read more:
Royal India Express is another successful restaurant concept from the Kambo Brothers, which also created and manages The Kebab Cafe, one of Papa Bello Enterprises restaurant concepts. RIE offers a competitive business model, taking full advantage of fast casual restaurant dining as well as catering, allowing the restaurant to bring its products out of the restaurant and into the home or business.
Read more:
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.
Read more:
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.
Read more:
