Sonnenblick-Eichner Company Arranges $23mil for Westin Beale Street Hotel in Memphis
MEMPHIS, TN, December 19, 2005. Sonnenblick-Eichner Company has arranged $23 million of unsubordinated leasehold construction financing for the 203-room Westin Beale Street Hotel, in downtown Memphis. The Westin Beale Street is expected to be the only branded four-star hotel in the market when it is completed in early 2007. The Westin hotel will be developed and managed by Nashville based Senate Hospitality Group and is designed by Hnedak Bobo Group, a Memphis based architecture firm.
The $40 million hotel is part of $2.5 billion in new investment that developers and the government are making in downtown Memphis. Located across the street from the Westin Beale Street hotel is the $250 million FedEx Forum, home to the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. The Beale Street Entertainment District is "Tennessee's number one tourist attraction," generating 4 million visitors annually. In addition, the Memphis Cook Convention Center hosts 524,000 visitors annually and recently completed a $92 million expansion.
"This construction financing provides a crucial element in this emerging market for upscale entertainment and tourism in Memphis. The Westin Beale Street hotel will be the only full-service, 4-Star branded hotel in the market, the only Starwood hotel in Memphis, and the first Westin branded hotel in the state of Tennessee," according to Elliot Eichner, a Sonnenblick-Eichner principal. "This complex financing assignment included New Market Tax Credits and private mezzanine financing," Patrick Brown, also a principal of the firm, added.
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