Manatt’s Hospitality and Leisure practice consists of seasoned practitioners in the global hospitality market. We advise hotel companies, managers, developers, lenders, family offices, and providers and users of capital on significant industry transactions, as well as help clients with day-to-day issues and concerns throughout the United States and globally.
Our knowledge and experience in the hospitality and leisure industry allow us to identify trends, craft solutions and be consummate business advisors and dealmakers for our clients. We know the industry, the key players, and the important business and legal concerns in all tiers of the market. We deliver results with our extensive experience advising on all aspects of hospitality-related projects and have a keen understanding of the industry from all perspectives.
Depth in the Following Sectors
- Hotels, including condominium hotels and serviced apartments
- Hotel management, franchise and license agreements
- Purchase and sale of hospitality assets—single asset and portfolios
- Joint ventures (JVs) and corporate
- Mixed-use hotels and residences
- Fractional, private residence clubs, destination clubs
- Master-planned communities
- Food and beverage, restaurant, and nightclub operations
- Debt and equity financing, and JVs
- Private equity and real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Development and entitlements
- Environmental
- Employment
- Cultural institutions
- Real estate advisory services
Who We Work With
Our clients are some of the largest names in the hospitality and leisure industry—including hotel owners and operators, leading REITs, developers, lenders, investors and construction firms, among others.
Our lawyers have significant breadth and depth of experience, including with respect to the following representative transactions:
United States
- Salamander Hotels & Resorts in structuring a branded residential community in Middleburg, Virginia, drafting covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs), membership club agreements, and negotiating brand license and management agreements. Also providing advice on additional mixed-use resorts in various locations.
- Bald Mountain Development, LLC, in the development of the Four Seasons Napa Valley Hotel & Residences in Calistoga, California, creation of the mixed-use community, drafting of CC&Rs and shared-use agreements, negotiation of hotel agreements, assisting in sale of the hotel.
- AJ Capital Partners and prior owners of the Auberge Calistoga Ranch Resort, a mixed-use hotel and private club project in Napa Valley, California, based on unique entitlements, in the structuring, development, investment, financing and sale of the hotel and club memberships.
- The Robert Green Company in the development of a mixed-use, 525-acre, master-planned community in La Quinta, California, with master community and first-phase branded community of two luxury hotels and three branded residential communities, including a module condominium, golf course and clubhouse, and shared amenities and master facilities.
- Alchemy Ventures, LLC, in the acquisition of Aetna Springs Resorts, a 3,100-acre historic hotel and resort located in Napa Valley, including extensive diligence on entitlements, environmental issues and water rights, negotiation of JV agreement, and advice on alternative property uses.
- Lender of credit facilities providing approximately $1 billion in syndicated debt and mezzanine financing to the developer of The Edition Times Square, a mixed-use hotel and commercial/retail facility in New York. Work involved diligence and advice in connection with the hotel management, technical services and other agreements, as well as negotiation of the subordination, non-disturbance and attornment (SNDA) agreement with the hotel brand.
- The developer of a high-rise, mixed-use branded hotel and residential condominium project located in Houston, Texas, in negotiating the hotel and residential management license and related agreements, and structuring the mixed-use condominium regime.
- Master developer in obtaining the entitlements for, and structuring and implementing, a master-planned resort community within the Kirkwood Ski Resort.
- Experiential hotel company in the alternative lodging space in drafting its template hotel management agreement and related agreements.
- Luxury hotel company in drafting template hotel and residential agreements for use in the hotel and branded residential context, as well as drafting rental program agreements and providing advice.
- Developer of a mixed-use condominium and sub-condominium tower being constructed above the South Station Transportation Center in Boston, Massachusetts, in the negotiation of residential license and management agreements with the hotel brand.
- Developer of a mixed-use, multitower residential, apartment and commercial complex in Boston, including two residential condominium towers branded under the Regent Hotel flag, in connection with the negotiation of the license, technical services and related brand agreements.
- Hotel company in connection with a mixed-use condo-hotel project in the Luxury Row Kalakaua Avenue of Waikiki, including two towers of residences, retail and restaurants. Work involved negotiating the condominium, shared facilities and management agreements.
- Hotel company in negotiation of the hotel management agreement and related agreements for The Hotel and Residences at LA LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, including negotiation of a complex reciprocal easement agreement (REA), master CC&Rs, condominium, and marketing license agreement.
- Developer of the Franz Klammer Lodge and The River Club, fractional projects located in Telluride, Colorado, in the formation of the projects, drafting CC&Rs and related fractional documents, and registering the project for offer and sale as a timeshare in various jurisdictions.
- Owner of a winery in the Napa Valley in creating a private residence club on agricultural land, to include a wine club with use of residences. Work included creation of and drafting of all documents for the club offering, structured as a private placement.
- Private investment firm in the acquisition of a city block in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina—two branded hotels, a celebrity restaurant, and office and retail; work included negotiating the purchase and sale agreement, hotel and restaurant management agreements, and celebrity chef license and service agreement.
- Kennedy Wilson in the acquisition and financing of the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, and in the sale of the hotel.
- Meta in the development, ground lease and sublease of a boutique hotel and restaurant facility on the main campus of the technology company in Silicon Valley, California.
- Hotel developer in developing resort and conference hotels in California and other western states, including obtaining all governmental approvals, including from the California Coastal Commission, required for Terranea, a 582-room hotel located on 102 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and negotiating a ground lease and related documents with the University of California, San Diego, for the development of the Estancia La Jolla Hotel.
- Hotel operator in preparing a lease calling for one of its hotels in North Carolina to be converted into an emergency COVID-19 quarantine facility for U.S. Army soldiers infected with the virus, who were airlifted out of bases in Northern Italy at the outset of the pandemic.
- Family office in the purchase of an 85% equity interest in an Embassy Suites hotel and a DoubleTree hotel located near Wilmington, Delaware, including amendments to the respective hotel franchise agreements, the negotiation of new management agreements for the hotels, and new mortgage and mezzanine loans totaling $42 million for funding performance improvement plan (PIP) improvements and the operation of the hotels.
- Hauser & Wirth, the Los Angeles branch of a prominent international art gallery, in negotiations for a new gallery located in a 100,000-square-foot former manufacturing facility in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles, California.
- Multinational social infrastructure privatization firm that is the nation’s leader in public/private community development with the privatization of both housing and lodging on over 30 U.S. military bases, including the privatization, leasing, acquisition, development and financing of multiple 50-year projects—one of which, the Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL), was recognized as the “North American Real Estate Deal of the Year” by Project Finance magazine.
- Hedge fund with more than $7 billion in discretionary assets, as lead lender, with an up to $800 million syndicated secured credit facility made to a leading operator of casinos, as borrower, and funding the borrower’s acquisition of casinos, hotels and card rooms in Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Washington.
- Property owner in connection with the entitlements, development agreement and environmental review for nearly 2 million square feet of a downtown Los Angeles mixed-use project, which will cover approximately three city blocks and include over 1,000 residential units, 250,000 square feet of retail space, two boutique hotels and a small college campus.
- Live Nation, and Andy Hewitt and Bill Silva Presents for the ten-year exclusive license agreement to the Hollywood Bowl (2018–27). Representation included advising on successful response to the RFP against a competing concert promoter and negotiation of license agreement.
- Well-known Los Angeles art museum with negotiating and drafting all major construction and design agreements for its redesign, including the coordination of contractors, ongoing risk management, and negotiation of new contracts and subcontracts as the project moves into vertical construction.
- Owner in the development, land use and financing of hospitality, single-family home, restaurant and fractional interest projects in the county of Napa, California.
- Goals Soccer Centers in several public-private partnership (P3) deals within the California cities of Rancho Cucamonga, Pomona and West Covina. Our work included advising the client in the negotiation of P3 arrangements at several jurisdictional levels, including the county, the city, college districts and school districts.
- San Jose Earthquakes, Coleman Airport Partners and Hunter Properties, in connection with the development of Avaya Stadium, the new home of the San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer team.
International
- Sovereign wealth fund in negotiating the hotel management agreements for a prestigious London-based international private club and hotel brand for two hotels and related amenities located in Doha, Qatar, including a beach club and multiple food and beverage venues.
- Canadian-based hotel company in drafting its template hotel management agreement, technical services agreement and preopening agreement in expanding its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean to management of third-party–owned hotels.
- Developer of a branded mixed-use hotel, retail and commercial complex in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, branded as a Thompson hotel. Work involved negotiation of the hotel and a celebrity license agreement with EMM Group for the operation and branding of Catch Playa, a high-end nightclub and restaurant.
- Master developer of the Mayakoba Resort in Mexico, in connection with the creation of several branded hotel and residential projects within the resort, including Banyan Tree and Rosewood Mayakoba hotel and residences.
- Developer of a master-planned resort community in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, in negotiating a hotel management agreement and ancillary agreements for a hotel and branded residences to be operated under the Fairmont brand.
- Hotel company in providing advice with respect to, and structuring, drafting, and negotiating all documents necessary to create and manage a multiphase resort condominium and fractional project in Punta Mita, Mexico, and registration of the project in the U.S.
- Major shareholder and creditor in the bid to acquire the Cap Juluca Hotel & Resort out of complex bankruptcy liquidation proceedings.
- AJ Capital Partners, through a U.S.-based investment fund, in its acquisition of the Mallihouana Hotel & Resort in Anguilla. Work involved the negotiation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Anguilla, purchase and sale agreement, and shareholder buyout.
- Master developer of the 2,200-acre Peninsula Papagayo Resort Community in the creation of a mixed-use resort community on concession land located in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica, including hotels, golf course, beach club, marina, luxury residences, condominiums, commercial, fractional and timeshare.
- Developer of the first-phase Four Seasons project in Peninsula Papagayo, consisting of a hotel, condominiums, private residences and private residence club. Work involved community documents and negotiation of Four Seasons agreements.