AWH buys, rebrands resort operator

Manhattan-based AWH Partners has bought and rebranded Lane Hospitality, a hotel and resort operator, as part of their expanding national hotel repositioning business.

Russell Flicker, Jonathan Rosenfeld, Chad Cooley and Bernie Michaels have bought seven hospitality assets, including two in Florida, since launching AWH in 2010. The company also is looking at three or four New York City deals, Flicker told TRD last month.

AWH does traditional repositionings as well as what Flicker described as “friendly foreclosure procedures.” In such a deal, the partners know the asset and are in contact with lenders and borrowers from the start, ensuring a smooth transition to new ownership, he said.

Flicker and Rosenfeld worked at Blackstone, where Flicker ran a team focused on zoning and development. Cooley was a vice president with Related and Michaels was a founding partner of Michael, Levitt & Rubenstein.

In the last two years, the company has invested more than $150 million in properties and managed redevelopment projects totaling more than $50 million, a AWH representative told TRD.

AWH has rebranded Chicago-based Lane Hospitality as Spire Hospitality, Flicker said.

“Lane was named for the Lane family,” he said, “so we want to give it a fresh face.”

The Florida properties, the Boca Bridge Hotel in Boca Raton and another hotel that AWH has not yet identified, are part of the Lane rebranding.

In New York, Spire is looking both at converting office buildings into hotels and acquiring boutique hotels, Flicker said.