| Los Angeles, CA, April 13, 2005 - Sonnenblick-Eichner Company announced
today that they have arranged a combined total of $68,500,000 in financing
for two distinct hotel properties in California, both located in renowned
tourist destination cities.
The 30-year old property, encumbered by a long-term unsubordinated ground lease with the city of Anaheim, will be completely renovated at a cost of approximately $60,000 per room. The renovation will include improvements to the exterior of the building, and a complete refurbishment of the guestrooms, bathrooms, and restaurants. The meeting space will be renovated with the addition of approximately 7,200 square feet. Upon completion, The Sheraton Anaheim Resort Hotel will be a full service hotel featuring 490 fully renovated guestrooms, including a club lounge floor; 24,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting and banquet facilities; new restaurant and lounge; upgraded lobby and main entrance; new porte cochère, façade, and street-side landscaping; and executive business center. Completion of construction is expected in mid 2006, when the property will be repositioned as the newest AAA 3-Diamond, full-service hotel in Anaheim. The hotel will remain open during renovation. Elliot Eichner, a principal of Sonnenblick-Eichner Company commented, �This renovation loan makes it possible to reposition the hotel as one of the premier resort properties in the Anaheim market. We were able to secure non-recourse leasehold financing which represents approximately 85% of the total project costs. The financing was provided by one source, a Wall Street investment bank.� Patrick Brown, also a principal of Sonnenblick-Eichner Company, added, �We had a tremendous amount of interest in this transaction due to the compelling upside in the turn-around and that the all-in cost of the project will be significantly below replacement cost.� The hotel will benefit from its location one block north of the world-famous Disneyland Theme Park, Downtown Disney, and the recently completed $1.4 billion California Adventure Theme Park. The hotel is also one block away from the recently renovated and expanded 1.6 million square-foot Anaheim Convention Center, the largest convention center on the West Coast. In a separate transaction, Sonnenblick-Eichner Company arranged $22 million in first mortgage financing for the Coast Santa Cruz Hotel in Santa Cruz, California. The 10-story, 163-room, full service hotel is located on the beach next to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The property is the only full service hotel situated directly on the beach in Santa Cruz, a city which draws approximately 3 million visitors per year. Mr. Eichner commented, �The borrower was able to take advantage of the extremely attractive interest rates and tighter spreads on well-seasoned hotels. Given the Coast Santa Cruz Hotel�s consistently successful history of operations and its one-of-a-kind location, we had significant interest from institutional lenders on this financing.� Santa Cruz, California, located 30-minutes from Silicon Valley and one hour south of San Francisco, is world-renowned for its beaches and competitive surfing, entertainment, dining, wineries, and other recreational amenities. The Coast Santa Cruz Hotel is the only hotel located on the beach from San Francisco to Monterey and offers its guests panoramic views of Monterey Bay. About Sonnenblick-Eichner Company
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