By Stephanie Gleason
Five hotels owned by investment fund Shamrock-Hostmark Hotel Fund LP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday after they were unable to pay or negotiate an extension on loans that matured May 31.
Each hotel has its own credit facility ranging from $13 million to $37 million from General Electric Capital Corp., which matured first in July 2009 and were extended to May 2012. The loans are cross collateralized and were used for capital improvements at the hotels when they were acquired in 2006 and 2007.
The $100 million Shamrock-Hostmark Hotel Fund is a fund under the umbrella of Shamrock Holdings Inc., the investment fund founded by Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, in 1978. It's directly under Shamrock Capital Investors Inc., which also manages Shamrock Activist Value Fund LP.
Hostmark Hospitality Group, based in Schaumburg, Ill., manages these five hotels, as well as 40 others in 13 states and Egypt.
Although the hotels were unable to pay the loans at maturity, they have become more profitable since being acquired by Shamrock-Hostmark Hotel Fund, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Nevertheless, negotiations to extend the loan fell apart on June 18 and 19.
"The debtor believes that Chapter 11 will afford it the opportunity to restructure or refinance the loan and stabilize the hotel over the next several years as the economy continues to recover from one of the worst recessions in the country's history," it said in court documents.
There are five hotels that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The 489-room Doubletree Tampa Airport Westshore Hotel in Tampa, Fla., is the largest of them, with the largest loan at $37 million, and it employs 230 people. The 293-room Wyndham Boston-Andover Hotel in Andover, Mass., has a $17.55 million loan and employs 150 people. The 198-room Palm Desert Embassy Suites in Palm Desert, Calif., has a $16.9 million loan and employs 85 people. The 238-room Doubletree Hotel in Princeton, N.J., has a $15.76 million loan and employs 100 people. The 224-room Crowne Plaza in San Antonio has a $13 million loan and employs 90 people.
The bankruptcy attorney for the hotels was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
The hotels requested in court documents access to the cash generated by room and food sales, saying that "absent the use of cash collateral, the debtor may be forced to close the hotel, in which case its assets and its bankruptcy estate will be irreparably harmed to the detriment of not only the debtor, but also all of its creditors and would result in significant job losses."
In separate bankruptcy petitions, each hotel claimed between $10 million and $50 million in both assets and liabilities.
(Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review covers news about distressed companies and those under bankruptcy protection. Go to http://dbr.dowjones.com)
Write to Stephanie Gleason at stephanie.gleason@dowjones.com. Follow her on Twitter at @WSJBankruptcy.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 28, 2012 13:05 ET (17:05 GMT)
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