Starwood Capital Group’s bid for the bankrupt Extended Stay hotel chain, filed yesterday, was “better” than the bid from a competing group led by Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co, according to Jacqueline Marcus, a lawyer for Extended Stay. Yesterday marked the deadline to submit a bid on Extended Stay’s holdings, according to Bloomberg news, with an auction slated for May 27. The 680-property hotel chain hopes that by selling its assets it can exit bankruptcy protection, which it filed for in June 2009. Although Extended Stay would not comment on how much Starwood’s offer was, Marcus said that the hotel feels strongly about the bid. “In our view, it’s a bit better than the Centerbridge bid, and we’re hoping there will be vigorous bidding at the auction,” Marcus said. A competing bid from the Centerbridge group has been valued at $905 million. [Bloomberg]

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Private equity firm Blackstone Group is looking to buy a minority stake in Extended Stay, a now-distressed hotel chain it sold in 2007 for $8 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blackstone’s approximately $100 million investment would be part of a larger, $905 million potential buy-up of the troubled hotel company, made by a group of investors led by Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co. The companies’ bid for the 680-property hotel chain, whose bankruptcy filing is the largest ever recorded in the hotel industry, is a direct challenge to a similar buy up proposed by Starwood Capital Group, the company whose hotel branch is best known for its line of W Hotels.

Miami Lakes-based BankUnited is on the verge of a major transaction, CEO John Kanas told members of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Kanas joined New York private equity firms to set up BankUnited in May, on the ruins of BankUnited FSB, which was closed and auctioned off by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Kanas said it had $921 million in equity as of June 30 and could draw on more capital from the consortium of private equity firms that backed its formation. They include WL Ross & Company, the investment firm led by the vulture investor Wilbur Ross, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Centerbridge Partners, the LeFrak Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Greenaap Investments and East Rock Endowment Fund. Kanas said he expects to strike a deal within the next week. [SFBJ]