July 27, 2010--Crescent Hotels & Resorts has been reinstated as Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel manager, and property mortgage holder BlackRock has been ordered to pay hotel-related state sales and county room taxes by Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Mike Della Vecchia.

Della Vecchia also ordered Hilton owner Shubh Hotels Pittsburgh to drop a lawsuit against Crescent and BlackRock, and for BlackRock to rescind its request that Shubh immediately pay off a $49.6 million Hilton loan. The order was recorded Monday, but dated July 23. "I think we got a fair shake from the judge, the order basically states the settlement that we came up with last Friday," said Jai Lalwani, an associate of Shubh Hotel's CEO Atul Bisaria, and part of a new ownership group expected to take over the property in the near future.

The order is the latest episode in an ongoing battle pitting current and future Hilton owners, against the property's current mortgage holder and manager. Last week, Shubh fired Crescent, alleging poor performance. Meanwhile, activity is set to begin later today on the long-stalled Hilton construction project, said Frank Amedia, head of Miami-based construction manager TC Property Solutions.

-----

To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/.

Copyright (c) 2010, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). NYSE:BLK,