Aztec Arranges Performing Loan Purchase on Comfort Inn in Hollywood, FL
MIAMI, FL, January 26, 2009 - Aztec Group, Inc., Florida's leading real estate investment and merchant banking firm based in Miami, is pleased to announce the closing of the acquisition of a $13,000,000 performing, fixed rate, CMBS loan encumbering the Comfort Inn Airport / Cruise Port South in Hollywood, Florida.
Located just south of the Fort Lauderdale International Airport and Port Everglades, the 191-room Comfort Inn contains a large outdoor swimming pool, a restaurant, pool side bar and a business center. The hotel was acquired by the current owner three years ago and was completely renovated in 2007/8.
The performing, 10-year, fixed rate non-recourse loan was originally placed and closed in January 2008, and was intended to be securitized as a CMBS loan. The deteriorating CMBS market in the latter part of 2007 and throughout 2008 caused a paradigm shift in the ability to securitize billions of dollars worth of commercial real estate loans. The Comfort Inn Airport / Cruise Port South loan remained on the balance sheet of the original lender for nearly one year.
The purchaser of the loan, a locally-based private investment group, represented by and affiliated with the principals of Aztec Group, entered into an agreement and concluded the acquisition within seven days just prior to the end of the year. "Since we knew the underlying collateral for the loan, as well as the borrower, extremely well, it was relatively easy to close this performing loan acquisition very quickly," noted Boaz Ashbel, Aztec Group's Managing Director, who along with Jason Shapiro closed the loan acquisition. "After sitting on the balance sheet of the lender for nearly one year as an unsecuritized CMBS loan, the lender was motivated to move the asset off the books and raise some cash in time for 2009," added Shapiro.
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