RodBlu Buys Five Florida Hotels

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. October 14, 2008

MAY 31, 2007. RodBlu Investments purchased five Florida hotel assets in a deal worth over $45 million that included the Ramada Inn Dadeland and the Hampton Inn on Brickell Avenue in Miami; the Hampton Inn in Florida City, and a Hampton Inn and Country Inn & Suites on I-95 in Vero Beach. The seller was C L Leemon Properties. The purchase was made as a joint venture with The Carlyle Group, with debt financing by Wells Fargo.

The five hotels will be operated by Driftwood Hospitality Management of Jupiter, FL, RodBlu Investments' hotel management affiliate. "From a real estate perspective, these properties are phenomenally located and offer considerable upside potential through renovating and repositioning," explains Carlos J. Rodriguez, Managing Partner of RodBlu investments and Executive Vice President of Driftwood Hospitality Management.

The Miami office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, represented by Senior Managing Director J. Daniel Carlo, arranged the joint venture between The Carlyle Group and RodBlu Investments to purchase the Leemon hotel portfolio.

This is the second major investment for RodBlu Investments, a private equity real estate fund established in March 2007 by a group of experienced South Florida real estate investors from a variety of professional backgrounds. Their first venture, a mezzanine loan for a shopping center development in Nashville, TN, has already provided more than a 60% IRR to investors. The fund's mission is to unite private high net worth individuals with institutional investors to acquire and develop all categories of commercial real estate throughout the United States, Caribbean and Latin America, focusing on strong value-added opportunities.

Led by Managing Partners Carlos J. Rodriguez and Stephen Blumenthal, RodBlu Investments will manage a portfolio of approximately $500 million in value once fully invested. The fund enables large institutional investors to tap into a huge knowledge base of personal investors with access to off-market deals, while providing an opportunity for these local investors to leverage their personal funds for better returns, access to bigger deals and preferential lending rates.

RodBlu Investments and its sister private equity fund, DVI Cardel Funds, together with their affiliate Driftwood Hospital Management, have invested over $640 million in premier hotel properties throughout the U.S. since June 2006. They are part of a escalating global trend. According to Private Equity Real Estate magazine, real estate is becoming an increasingly important asset class for institutional investors around the world, with private equity funds currently in the market or coming to market within the next 6 months targeting more than $60 billion in capital.

RodBlu Investments and DVI Cardel Funds will be located at 2601 South Bayshore Drive, Suite 1475 in Coconut Grove, Florida.

RodBlu Investments Board of Directors are:

---|Carlos J. Rodriguez, Chairman of Cardel Hotels and Executive Vice President of Driftwood Hospitality;

---|Steve Blumenthal, President of JS Commercial Realty and Vice President of Pan American Companies;

---|David Buddemeyer, President of Driftwood Hospitality Management;

---|Pamela Rodriguez, former Vice Chairman of Cardel Hotels;

---|Jeffrey Flegel, President and Owner of Merit Floors;

---|Jonathan Awner, Shareholder and Chair of Corporate Practice Group at Akerman Senterfitt Attorneys at Law;

---|J. Daniel Carlo, Sr. Managing Director of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP.;

---|Jack Lowell, Managing Director of Flagler Real Estate Services; and

---|David B. McCain, former President and CEO of Lennar Financial Services.