Fund to acquire hotels worldwide
Starwood Capital Group Global LLC financier Barry Sternlicht’s real estate investment firm is seeking to raise as much as $800 million for a fund that will acquire hotels around the world. The investment vehicle, Starwood Capital Hospitality Fund, has obtained $303 million from three backers, according to a notice filed April 15 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing didn’t identify the investors.
Lodging funds are proliferating as the hotel industry recovers from a slump sparked by the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Private investors are buying up hotels, whose values can fluctuate with the real estate market, while publicly traded lodging companies focus on boosting revenue from management services.
“The Wall Street method of valuing hotel companies seems to reward them more for recurring income than for owning bricks and sticks,” said Ross Bierkan, executive vice president at RLJ Development LLC, a Bethesda, Md., real estate company that owns hotels in California and Washington.
Colo. tie to N.H. ski flap
The couple who own the Crested Butte ski resort in Colorado are urging New Hampshire’s governor to reconsider his opposition to their proposal to expand Mount Sunapee Resort, which they lease inside a state park.
Gov. John Lynch has said the expansion is not in the public interest.
Tim and Diane Mueller want to add 175 acres to the 968-acre ski area for new trails and a chair lift to connect the resort to private property where they want to build as many as 250 condominiums.
Rates on 30-year mortgages keep retreating
National rates on 30-year mortgages fell for a fifth consecutive week even as the Federal Reserve was raising short-term rates. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.75 percent last week, down from 5.78 percent the week before. The decline pushed the 30-year rate down by more than a quarter-point from the 6.04 percent high for this year reached at the end of March. Below are average mortgage rates in Denver, Adams and Arapahoe counties as of Thursday and the previous 52 weeks. The one-year Treasury bill average reported by the Federal Reserve Bank is 3.33 percent.
