BGL Real Estate Advisors Completes Aloft Hotel Financing, Announces Groundbreaking

BGL Real Estate Advisors, a subsidiary of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), a leading middle market investment bank, today announced the financing of a new 135-room Aloft Hotel, a W Hotels inspired brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., in Chagrin Highlands in Beachwood, Ohio. BGL secured the debt and equity financing and served as co-developers with Cleveland real estate developer Scott Berkowitz. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place on October 15th and the hotel is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2013.

BGL Real Estate Advisors leveraged its access to a full spectrum of capital sources to structure a financing solution that provided the capital required to develop the hotel.

“It was easy to get excited about this project, “said Michael Gibbons, Senior Managing Director and Principal at BGL. “The hotel is ideally located at the doorstep to the brand new $170 million, 53-acre Eaton Corporation World Headquarters, across the street from the new, state-of-the-art, University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center and close to many other Fortune 1000 companies.”

Aloft, an upscale, hip, urban inspired select service hotel, referred to as the “Style at a Steal” brand by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Bold, sleek, and unique, Aloft has completely redefined the select service category by pairing a tech-savvy, design oriented product with the power of Starwood Hotels and Resorts global sales and marketing platform.

Nico Bolzan, Director, and Jeffrey Steck, Vice President, led the BGL Real Estate Advisors transaction team. Jeffrey Wild, Partner at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff served as legal counsel. Financing was secured through US Bank. Chagrin Highlands is a master planned corporate community being developed by The Richard E. Jacobs Group, LLC and Scott Properties, a division of Tyco International LTD. Mann Architects and Pride One Construction served as architect and general contractor, respectively. Midas Hospitality, LLC will manage the hotel.

About BGL Real Estate Advisors

BGL Real Estate Advisors provides comprehensive real estate investment banking services to the middle market, which includes real estate advisory, debt and equity placements, financial restructuring, and asset acquisition and disposition. BGL’s services cover the full spectrum of asset classes, including multi-family, student housing, hospitality/leisure, office, retail, industrial, and senior and assisted living properties.

About Aloft Hotels

Aloft Hotels is part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1,112 properties in 100 countries and territories. Starwood family of brands include: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, Aloft®, and Element SM. Starwood Hotels & Resorts boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. With 60 hotels open since the Aloft brand first arrived on the scene, Aloft, a vision of W Hotels, has changed the hotel landscape offering “style at a steal” everywhere from Baltimore to Beijing to Bogota to Brussels — and everywhere in between. For more information, please visit www.alofthotels.com.