Hodgson Russ has extensive experience assisting clients in the hospitality and lodging industry with the full range of their legal needs. Our firm has been involved in representing hotel owners, operators, and developers for more than 30 years, and as a conservative estimate, we have been involved in more than 150 hotels and more than $2 billion worth of transactions involving lodging facilities. Our hotel clients include Shaner Hotel Group, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and several other prominent franchises.

Our firm’s wide range of experience in the hospitality and lodging industry includes representing clients in connection with:

• Acquisition of indebtedness on existing hotels, including uncommon forms of ownership such as tenancy-in-common (TIC)
• Air-rights ownership agreements
• Chapter 11 proceedings
• Construction and development
• Financing and refinancing
• Foreclosures and receiverships
• Franchising
• Hotel acquisitions and dispositions
• Management agreements
• Ownership, operation, and management of convention center hotels
• Purchase and sale transactions
• Purchase of hotel-related assets in connection with bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings
• Raising capital in both the public and private markets, including through equity offerings, debt offerings, and other structures
• Restructuring
• Rewards programs
• Sophisticated financing strategies including securitizations and structures that maximize tax advantages, including real estate investment trusts (REITs)
• Taxation

Based on our extensive experience serving hotel, hospitality, and lodging clients, our firm knows this industry from more than just a legal perspective — our attorneys also have a deep understanding of the unique business issues it faces. That understanding is reflected in our work in areas such as liquor licensing, management agreements, marketing and advertising programs, zoning and real estate issues, intellectual property, and labor and employment matters.

The attorneys in our Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Commercial Litigation Practice Group have substantial experience representing debtors, creditors, and third parties in the hospitality and lodging industry. We have represented hotels in loan workout and chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, as well as mortgagees, other secured and unsecured creditors, and bond holders. We have also represented parties who have acted as receivers in the context of foreclosure proceedings.