HOTELS Opportunities Conference

debt, equity, acquisition

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About hotel opportunities conference

Join the industry’s key players at the HOTELS Opportunities Conference.

HOTELS is hosting an in-person event in Miami on March 31 at the Mandarin Oriental focusing on Deals, Workouts and Access to capital.

Panels will highlight how to pivot and reinvent during COVID-19, educate about workout options, gain access to new funding sources, teach how to finance new acquisitions, finding distressed hotel deals and discuss federal and local assistance.

The current COVID market has shifted the norm. This event will be held in-person with plenty of social distancing.. We will take all reasonable COVID precautions. With this in mind, we feel it’s time to start hosting in-person events in order to support the industry.

Whether you are an executive, a hotel owner, an investor or a capital source, this information and our panelists will help bring you current.

Mingle with hundreds of attendees, and meet other hotel owners, investors, debt funds, senior lenders, executives, hotel brokers and others involved in the hospitality space.

The conference, which is launched by the leading global hotel industry publication Hotels Magazine, will feature interactive and educational panels, business exhibits, keynote speeches and a cocktail VIP mixer.

Through our extensive network industry experts, the industry-wide conference can help keep you updated about the latest in the industry.

About hotel opportunities conference

Keynote Speakers

Leland C.
"Lee" Pillsbury

Founder and Chairman of TLG Investment Partners

Maria Elvira
Salazar

United States Congress Woman (R-Florida)

Sloan Dean

Remington Hotels

Roger Hill

The Gettys Group

Austin Khan

Civitas Capital Group

Jason Liebman

Auric Road

Richard Millard

Highgate

Chip Ohlsson

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Jay Shah

Hersha Hospitality

Richard Stockton

Braemar Hotels & Resorts

Paul Weimer

CBRE Hotels

Joseph Yi

Real Hospitality Group

Michael Marshall

Marshall Hotels

John Cohlan

Margaritaville, Palm Beach

Greg O'Stean

Aimbridge Hospitality

Jonathan Plutzik

The Betsy, SoBe

Brian Woods

G6

Rami Zeidan

Life House Hotels

Tang Tang

Cottonwood Group

Carlos J. Rodriguez

Driftwood Capital

Raul Leal

Virgin Group Advisor

Jennifer Schrader

Caliber

Bob Sonnenblick

Sonnenblick Development LLC

Scott Wadler

Berkadia

Steven Rattner

JP Enterprises

Ali Jahangiri

HOTELS

Rory Greenberg

Palihouse

Dave Berg

Infinity Group

Daniel Lesser

LW Hospitality Advisors

Jake Wurzak

Dove Hill Investment and Development

Brian Quinn

Sonesta

Andrew Dickey

JLL

Vinay Patel

AAHOA

Matt Hagler

Falcone Group

Schedule

HOTELS Opportunities Conference - Miami

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

8:30am - 3:00pm

Attendee Registration

9:30am - 5:00pm

Exhibition Hall

9:30am - 10:00am

Keynote welcome address by Leland Pillsbury

Panels

10:00am - 10:50am

During Covid - How to Pivot and Reinvent operations

10:50am - 11:05am

Networking Break

11:05am - 11:55am

Exploring Workout Options; PPP forgiveness, strategy for delinquency on Senior, Mezz, & CMBS

11:55am - 12:45pm

Financing New Opportunities: Institutional Lending, Debt Funds, Redeployment EB-5, Opportunity Zone equity, PACE financing

12:45pm - 1:45pm

Keynote Lunch address by Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar

1:45pm - 2:35pm

Government Assistance Programs, Repositioning During COVID and Workouts

2:35pm - 3:25pm

Equity Markets, Fundraising, Structuring, & Pace Financing

3:25pm - 3:40pm

Networking Break

3:40pm - 4:30pm

Finding the Deal - Hotel Auctions, Foreclosures and Note Sales: Market Opportunities

5:00pm - 6:30pm

Cocktail VIP Mixer Co-hosted by Paul Weimer and Miguel Isla

Leland C. “Lee” Pillsbury is the founder and Chairman of TLG Investment Partners, a broad based real estate investment company. Lee was Founder and Chairman Thayer Lodging Group and was CEO from its founding in 1991 until its sale to Brookfield Properties in 2014. During this period, it’s real estate investments achieved a 27.0% IRR and 2.3 times invested capital... He began his career at Marriott, where he rose to become Executive Vice President and head of Strategy for Lodging, leading the company’s entry into time sharing, economy lodging and extended stay lodging. He is also a Managing Director of Thayer Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in technology companies targeting the travel and hospitality industry.

Lee has been involved in the purchase and sale of over 70 companies and played a major role in the launch of over 20 new companies. He serves on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several companies Thayer Ventures has investments in.

He served from 2010 to 2012 as Frank Rhodes Visiting Professor at Cornell University and is a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities across the country as well as China and Singapore.

Lee was recognized in 2020 by the Hotel Sales Management Association International with the Albert E. Koehl Lifetime Achievement award. He was named Hospitality Executive of the year by Penn State University in 2017 and Entrepreneur of the Year by Cornell University in 2016. He is a member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees and serves on its Executive Committee, Investment Committee, Board Composition and Governance Committee, Student Life Committee and Buildings and Properties Committee. He also serves on the Deans Advisory Boards of the S.C. Johnson College of Business and the School of Hotel Administration. He holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from JL Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern where he serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board and is the recipient of the Shaeffner Service Award/ He and his wife Mary founded the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

Founder, Owner and Operator. In a career that spans over 40 years, Raul has held top management positions for Interstate Hotels, Lane Hotels and the Continental companies and is one of the few hospitality industry executives that understands both the lifestyle and branded hotels segments. Currently Raul serves as an Advisor to Virgin Group on Brand and Design related matters. Raul recently stepped down as CEO of Virgin Hotels which launched in 2011.Virgin Hotels is an extension of Virgin Group and is owned by Richard Branson. Scheduled openings over the next 14 months include Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, Edinburgh and Glasgow with Miami breaking ground in 2021 and Philadelphia in 2022.

In between 1996 and 2010, Raul was President and Partner at Tecton Hospitality; an independently owned management company, which owned and operated a diverse portfolio of 35 branded hotels and boutique hotels. Tecton Hospitality was a “Preferred Hotel Management Company” by most of the major legacy brands. In 2002 he launched Desires Hotels, one of the first management companies focused on the growing lifestyle hotel segment and consumer preferences. Desires Hotels had 20 award winning modern boutique hotels located in urban and resort locations domestically and internationally. Desires Hotels was named “Best Management Company of the Year” by Lodging Hospitality in 2008. Raul has also served on the Boards for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cornell University.

Founder, Owner and Operator. In a career that spans over 40 years, Raul has held top management positions for Interstate Hotels, Lane Hotels and the Continental companies and is one of the few hospitality industry executives that understands both the lifestyle and branded hotels segments. Currently Raul serves as an Advisor to Virgin Group on Brand and Design related matters. Raul recently stepped down as CEO of Virgin Hotels which launched in 2011.Virgin Hotels is an extension of Virgin Group and is owned by Richard Branson. Scheduled openings over the next 14 months include Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, Edinburgh and Glasgow with Miami breaking ground in 2021 and Philadelphia in 2022.

In between 1996 and 2010, Raul was President and Partner at Tecton Hospitality; an independently owned management company, which owned and operated a diverse portfolio of 35 branded hotels and boutique hotels. Tecton Hospitality was a “Preferred Hotel Management Company” by most of the major legacy brands. In 2002 he launched Desires Hotels, one of the first management companies focused on the growing lifestyle hotel segment and consumer preferences. Desires Hotels had 20 award winning modern boutique hotels located in urban and resort locations domestically and internationally. Desires Hotels was named “Best Management Company of the Year” by Lodging Hospitality in 2008. Raul has also served on the Boards for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cornell University.

As a co-founder of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette’s (DLJ) Leveraged Finance business, Steven was instrumental in building and managing one of the most well-known and respected credit underwriting, sales, trading and research operations on Wall Street. His management skills and credit judgment helped to develop this business into one of the most profitable areas of the firm and on Wall Street overall. During his tenure, DLJ was the number 1 underwriter of non-investment grade debt and the top secondary market marker for over 14 consecutive years.

Steven moved to London in the late 1990s to help build out DLJ’s European fixed income and investment banking operations. During that time he oversaw a significant build up of professionals across business lines, industry groups and countries. He was instrumental in setting and executing strategy for the European operations to amass critical size and expertise to enable revenue generation that would compliment the US business and to attain standalone profitability.

After the DLJ merger with Credit Suisse, Steven became a partner at DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (DLJMBP). This business was founded in 1988 as one of the first private equity funds located within a major investment bank capitalizing on the in- house proprietary deal flow and industry and capital markets expertise to benefit both the bank and LPs. Upon joining DLJMBP he continued to build on his credit, business and managerial skills in helping the funds make numerous successful investments across various businesses including in the hospitality and gaming industry. During his tenure, DLJMBP invested over $7 billion of equity in 78 different companies as the private equity business continued it’s history of providing their Limited Partners’ with top quartile performance. He sat on the investment committee of DLJMBP and was ultimately responsible for managing the entire group.

Steven’s expertise has been sought out by hundreds of senior management teams to help them develop and execute business plans and finance acquisitions, expansions, start-ups and buyouts. In particular, he has significant expertise in the hospitality and gaming industry. He has had the opportunity to work with the senior managements of some of the premier companies in this space including Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International Inc., Host Hotels and Resorts Inc., Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., Caesars Entertainment Corp. and MGM Resorts International. Steven has also worked with many of the best real estate focused private equity firms including The Blackstone Group, Colony Capital, Starwood Capital Group and Brookfield Asset Management. He has advised these firms on all aspects of their business including acquisitions and divestitures of individual properties and portfolios, the financing of existing and new build properties and the maximization of value for all constituents in the capital structure. This has included investing as a principal as well as raising third party funds in the debt, mezzanine and equity markets both in the public and private arenas.

Steve is the founder of JPE Enterprises LLC, a private investment company specializing in large ground up real estate developments, small to mid-size private equity transactions and growth capital investments. In all cases, JPE invests where it can help the projects with more than just money, be it financial or strategic advice, mentoring, providing access to people or markets that help dramatically accelerate growth. As an example Mr. Rattner was the co-lead developer of the just completed 1,000,000 square foot 800 room Loew Kansas City Hotel where he negotiated and then securitized the tax incentives for the project that dramatically reduced the cost per key as well as bringing in Loews Hotels as the operator and equity partner.

Mr. Robert Sonnenblick, Principal of Sonnenblick, LLC, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania with more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of real estate and real estate finance. From 1981 to 1991 Mr. Sonnenblick was the driving force and power behind Sonnenblick-Goldman Corporation of California. Mr. Sonnenblick completed over $1.5 Billion of commercial real estate transactions on the West Coast and as a result is regarded as one of the West Coast’s leaders in the field of commercial real estate. Among the more notable projects for which Mr. Sonnenblick personally structured the financing for are The Beaudry Center, Los Angeles, California ($197 million), the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Pasadena, California ($97 million), One Waterfront Plaza, Honolulu, Hawaii ($100 million), and the Los Angeles World Trade Center, Los Angeles, California ($55 million).

In 1991 Mr. Sonnenblick was appointed Director of Development for the New Jersey and L.A. MetroMalls, with the responsibility for oversight and direction of the design, financing and leasing programs for two proposed $250 million enclosed regional malls totaling 1.2 million Sq. Ft. each. Mr. Sonnenblick personally oversaw more than 1 million Sq. Ft. of leases in connection with this position as well as arranging the necessary debt and equity financing. The New Jersey project opened to one of the strongest starts in the history of the United States mall industry. In addition, Mr. Sonnenblick was an original development partner of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. This 360-room, $90 million hotel was recently sold for $125 million.

Prior to forming Sonnenblick Development, LLC, Mr. Sonnenblick was the senior partner in a Los Angeles-based real estate development firm (Sonnenblick Del Rio Development) which specialized in public-private partnerships, specifically the development of four major government-leased office buildings throughout the Los Angeles basin. During this tenure, Mr. Sonnenblick successfully developed nearly 1 million square feet of government leased buildings, occupied by such tenants as U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Mr. Sonnenblick is a frequent speaker at various real estate-related functions, such as those hosted by Deloitte Touche, ICSC, Value Retail News, Crittenden, USC, UCLA Real Estate Program, IMN Real Estate Conferences and the Institute for International Research, The Opal Group, iGlobal Forum Group, Globe Street/Realshare Conferences and Bloomberg Conferences.

Mr. Sonnenblick is a member of the Advisory Board of the Golf Development Institute, a member of the Board of Real Estate Council of the Century City Chamber of Commerce and is a published author on subjects ranging from architecture to general real estate market conditions. In addition to Mr. Sonnenblick’s expertise in development, finance, joint ventures and equity structuring, Mr. Sonnenblick has also been certified as an expert in the area of real estate bankruptcy/foreclosure. Mr. Sonnenblick is a qualified expert witness in the area of Commercial Real Estate Finance and Interest Rates for the United States Federal Court System in numerous jurisdictions.

Austin Khan is an experienced hotel and real estate investment management professional and a senior member of the Investments team at Civitas. Mr. Khan’s twenty years of experience in real estate principal investment and advisory roles encompasses hospitality, office, multifamily and retail investments throughout the capital stack. Mr. Khan brings over $1.2 billion in lodging investment experience and $3 billion of total real estate transaction experience to Civitas Capital Group.

Civitas, Mr. Khan is responsible for general management of the firm’s lodging investment team. He serves on the firmwide Investment Committee as well as various other committees, boards, and the like related to Civitas lodging investment vehicles.

Mr. Khan most recently served as Managing Director of Blue Lion Capital, LLC an investment and advisory firm focused on real estate special situations investing. Prior to Blue Lion Capital, Mr. Khan was Chief Investment Officer of Ethika Investments, a $1.2 billion real estate private equity platform focused on opportunistic equity investments and high-yield credit, with a significant focus on the hotel sector. There, he oversaw investments in 15 hotels throughout the United States, including acquisitions and significant redevelopments.

Prior to Ethika, Mr. Khan served for five years as Vice President of Acquisitions at TRT Holdings, the parent company of Omni Hotels, among other holdings. In this leadership role, in addition to he worked with senior management to build three key lodging verticals for the firm: distressed credit, public-private development partnerships, and public company investing. Mr. Khan helped to lead the teams that developed the Omni Dallas Hotel and Omni Nashville Hotel.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Khan served as Real Estate Acquisitions Manager for OTO Development, focused on development of upper-midscale and upscale select service properties. Mr. Khan started his real estate career in investment banking roles at Banc of America Securities and Arthur Andersen. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

David Berg is a Partner overseeing Infinity’s middle-market acquisitions, investment ventures, and investment strategy within the firm’s expanding portfolio in New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Miami. David joined Infinity Real Estate in 2011 as Investment Director of real estate and corporate holdings. Since then, he has led Infinity’s expansion into the Philadelphia and Miami markets and is additionally responsible for maintaining and servicing the firm’s relationships with its lenders and investors within his markets.

David has established himself as a driving force behind Infinity’s real estate acquisitions, capital transactions, and the development of the company’s portfolio. His entrepreneurial approach and investment expertise have helped Infinity acquire, develop, and execute transactions in excess of $450 million. Under David’s leadership, Infinity is currently developing or repositioning over 1 million sq.ft. of commercial and residential property.

Prior to joining Infinity, David worked at Monday Properties, where he focused on the investment management of Class-A office towers, including 230 Park Avenue and an 11-asset Rosslyn, VA portfolio. Earlier, he was vice president of acquisitions at Mermelstein Development focusing on mixed-use multi- family and retail-oriented investments. David started his career as an investment banker at both JPMorgan and RBC Capital Markets.

David graduated from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University with majors in Finance and Real Estate. He is an active member of the Miami Beach development community, serving as a Vice President of the Ocean Drive Association, the co-chair of the South Beach BID, a board member of the Washington Avenue BID, and the vice president of the Espanola Way Association. David is the former co-founder and vice president of the Asperger’s Awareness Counsel as well as a devoted supporter of the ASPCA and Jewish National Fund.

David is a lifelong athlete and an avid Philadelphia sports fan. He enjoys playing hockey, skiing, tennis and soccer. He currently resides in New York City with his wife Maya and dog, Roux, named after his favorite hockey player Claude Giroux.