Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Lodging Opportunities Group Is Formed to Acquire, Operate Hotels

  

NEW YORK, NY June 2, 2011—Two experienced hotel and real estate professionals, Marty Schiffman (middle left photo) and Morris Lasky (top right photo), today announced they have partnered with two high-net-worth, New York-based families to create The Lodging Opportunities Group (LOG) to acquire and operate hotels. 

The investors have chosen LOG as their exclusive entry platform into an industry that is believed to be highly opportunistic at this time.  The new company’s executive team collectively brings more than 150 years of hotel and real estate investment experience, having owned, controlled or consulted on assets valued at more than $8 billion in the aggregate.

LOG, a New York-based company, will focus on opportunistically acquiring troubled, institutional-grade hotels located in urban and suburban U.S. markets, in segments ranging from luxury to economy.

 All LOG hotels will be managed by a sister company of Lodging Unlimited, Inc. (LUI), a 40-year-old, third-party hotel management company based in Chicago.  LOG and LUI will be joined by their western affiliate, Lodging Unlimited West, located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Marty Schiffman will lead the company as president.  He has been a real estate industry leader for more than 30 years, having participated as managing principal and in senior management roles in over $1 billion in transactions in all asset classes for such investment management companies as Sonnenblick-Goldman, Lehman Brothers and Carl Marks & Co. 

Morris Lasky will be chairman of the board of The Lodging Opportunities Group.  He brings more than 40 years’ experience to the position.  He is president of Lodging Unlimited Inc., which has operated or consulted on more than 300 hotels valued in excess of $7 billion.

 The company is an active participant in the troubled hotel management industry, and provides litigation support, development consulting, and crisis consulting. 

“The hotel industry is just now coming out of an economic tornado that severely impacted all segments and markets in the country,” Lasky said.  “We seek hotels that are in situations that may be difficult to untangle or require substantial work to turn the property around.”

LOG is seeking situations as much as it is seeking assets.  Typical investments sought by the company include, but are not limited to hotels:

“As we come out of this recession, there are hundreds of properties with seemingly insurmountable problems,” Lasky said.  “These types of properties are our sweet spot.  We have the people and systems in place to perform due diligence quickly, complete the acquisition quickly and take over a single property or portfolio in less than 24 hours.”

Additional information about The Lodging Opportunities Group may be found at www.lodgingunlimited.com, or by calling Morris Lasky at (312) 595-1390, or Marty Schiffman at (212) 909-8420.


Media Contact:
Jerry Daly, Patrick Daly, Daly Gray, Inc., 703 435 6293
Chris Daly, media, (703) 435-6293, chris@dalygray.com
                                                                                                                                                                                            




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