Morrison Cohen LLP | Hospitality

The hospitality industry continues to evolve and transform, despite soaring operating and tourism costs.

From boutique and lifestyle hotels to mixed-use properties, companies must employ the highest standards of service and fair business practices to sustain their competitive edge and earn customer loyalty. Our dedicated hospitality team takes a multidisciplinary approach to helping clients run, grow and protect their businesses and brands.

We represent leading hotel operators, luxury brands, developers, institutional and foreign capital investors, lenders, special servicers, and gaming and leisure companies in a full range of real estate, corporate, labor and employment and financing matters. Whether it’s addressing employment issues related to running a 24/7 business, expanding into new markets or financing hospitality ventures, we are your one-stop shop for legal services.

Commercial Lending & Finance: Our experienced finance lawyers create and implement ownership structures and financing strategies and advise and execute refinancings and work-outs.

Corporate: We handle full service, limited service and boutique hotel projects, as well as convention center projects, from property acquisition to construction to disposition, and everything in between. Our hospitality team drafts and reviews the management, licensing, marketing, technical services, food and beverage, and all other operations-related contracts for our hotel clients.

Labor & Employment: Our lawyers advise on day-to-day employment concerns, focusing on the many federal, state and local laws and regulations that govern the workplace, as well as each employer’s business and operational objectives. Often navigating a diverse, multicultural workforce within a 24/7 operation, we advise on preventative measures, training, and representation in formal proceedings before federal and state courts and administrative agencies

Real Estate: Our real estate hospitality lawyers work with architectural, design and construction professionals on original construction and renovation/rehab projects, including local zoning and ordinance compliance. We also have experience with mixed-use hotel projects and hotel-condominium developments.

Representative Experience

Represented Windham Mountain in connection with securing a new investment from two hospitality and resort development families – the Beall family and Kemmons Wilson family through its investment arm Kemmons Wilson Hospitality Partners (KWHP).

Represented Quadrum Development Corp. in its purchase of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Hotel for $96 million through a Chapter 11 plan.

Served as fund counsel to Ascendant Capital Partners in its $450 million financing deal for a hospitality REIT with Oaktree Capital Management LP and Watermark Lodging Trust.