CHICAGO – Aries Capital is pleased to announce that the firm’s Chicago office has closed on the financing  for a 156-unit, all-suites hotel in the Underground neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The hotel, formerly a Comfort Suites, is now repositioned as a Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites.

“We chose to work with Aries Capital because of their expertise in the hospitality arena and reputation for securing capital for complex transactions,” said borrower Evens Charles, President and CEO of Philadelphia-based Frontier Development and Hospitality Group.

In this transaction, the borrower received a $7,700,000 permanent loan with a five-year fixed rate term for a recently renovated Comfort Suites property.  The transaction was funded through a consortium of credit unions, and proceeds were used to pay off a maturing construction loan, buy out an existing equity partner, and fund the PIP requirements to reflag the asset to a Fairfield Inn & Suites.

“The construction loan had to be paid at the end of the original term, or the borrower would have faced a significant extension penalty, and the hotel only had less than one year of operating history when the financing closed,” said the Aries originator. “It’s very difficult to get hotels without significant operating history financed in this market, but we were able to get a long-standing capital partner comfortable with the transaction based on the remarkable performance the borrower had accomplished operating the asset, combined with the planned reflagging to the Fairfield franchise.”

About Frontier Development and Hospitality Group

Frontier Development and Hospitality Group was formed in 1998, and focuses on acquiring, repositioning, and operating commercial real estate assets.  Over the past 14 years, Frontier and its principals have closed on over 70 transactions ranging from commercial mixed use, luxury condominiums, residential, multi-family and hotels.  Frontier has developed brands from InterContinental, Choice Hotels and Marriott.