Other Services

Representative Engagements Follow

Straightline possesses a clear concentration of knowledge and has made a distinct effort to understand the full dynamics of the hotel industry.  This includes hotels, resorts, shared ownership (timeshares, fractionals), spas, second home villas, and similar  accommodation and leisure products.  At the same time, Straightline has been fortunate in having a varied base of clients, many of which have entrusted the Company with unique or one-off assignments.  In fact, the single most noteworthy characteristic of Straightline is probably that few of its client assignments follow in common molds.

 

 

Some of Straightline's Other Engagements follow...

• New York: Defense expert in a case brought by Southeast Asian prince contending his Owner’s Representative had unjustly enriched herself from his high visibility hotel assets.
  Click here for link to Vanity Fair magazine article related to this case.

• International:  Consultant to various Wall Street advisory firms, venture capital firms, and hedge funds concerning key players in the hospitality industry, their operating and financial performance, and their future prospects. (Multiple recurring engagements.)

• California:  Performed function room study for developer of 1,200-room waterfront hotel. Supported developer arguments concerning building-massing in discussions with City over view corridors between proposed ballpark and Coronado Bay.

• Florida:  Joint venture partner search for the owner/ developer of a high profile transient resort, with planned conversion to a timeshare regime.

• Mexico:  Senior member of a due diligence team for a newly formed timeshare company, which acquired three resort properties for $231 million, flipped the hotel portions to a REIT, while retaining the timeshare components for themselves.

• Southern California:  Performed an Interval Pricing Study for a proposed coastal timeshare resort.

• U.S. National:  Performed a Survey of Best Practices concerning construction project management for large construction projects. Client was a pension advisor.

• U.S. National:  Pursuit and representation of off-shore back-channel investment banking opportunities for multiple hospitality companies.

• U.S. Midwest and Southeast:  Pursued parties of interest in prospective acquisition of four timeshare resorts and their associated mortgage receivables as part of a plan to allow the bank to reduce its exposure in a major industry bankruptcy. Bank’s immediate exposure was $76 million.

• Florida:  Exclusive sales representation on behalf of the Japanese owner and Japanese lenders for an historic destination resort in a $42 million workout of a $134 million investment.

• California:  Prepared Survey and Market Overview concerning the hotel component of a 400-acre riverside mixed use development.

• U.S. National: Engaged in an Information Technology Patent Infringement case to opine upon the definition and use of the term “hospitality” as used within the patent.

• California:  Engaged as expert witness concerning lost business claim for an extended stay hotel in a construction defects defense.

• California:  Engaged as expert witness concerning economic damages component representing defense in a construction defects claim- all-suites hotel.

• U.S. Virgin Islands:  Engaged as expert witness in litigation involving value for services of project executive partner for a private residence club.

• Massachusetts:  Expert Witness in case involving diminution of value for 332-unit mountainside timeshare resort resulting from construction of adjacent wind turbines.

• Cruise Ship:  Solicitation of and negotiation with a hotel company for 5-Star branding and management of the hotel component of the world’s largest residential cruise ship ($750 million project).

• Anguilla:  Expert in residential and resort harms to unit owners in Caribbean beach resort where developer encroached upon their view planes and privacy with an adjacent building.

• California:  Expert Witness on the issue of standard of care concerning handling and retention of evidence causal to guest harm in a 5-star luxury hotel.