Art is nationally known for his extensive experience in handling complex real estate transactions for sophisticated hospitality developers and owners of hotels and destination resorts located in North and Central America and the Pacific Rim. Art regularly assists clients in connection with the purchase, development, financing, and sale of their projects. In the complicated world of mixed-use and shared-ownership hospitality projects, Art has structured some of the most creative ownership platforms in use today.
Hotel Transactions Expertise
Art’s hotel transaction expertise includes structuring, negotiating, documenting, and closing the purchase and sale of stand-alone hotels or destination resort properties, whether shovel-ready as entitled development projects or raw land. He also performs due diligence investigations of potential acquisitions. He has vast knowledge of business ancillary hospitality components of golf, tennis, and food and beverage, as well as negotiation and documentation of hotel operating agreements, pre-development advisory agreements and franchise and licensing agreements.
Hotel Structuring Expertise
Art’s hotel structuring expertise covers multiple development dimensions. He is adept in the legal design and structuring of projects to optimize flexibility for real estate ownership, financing and future sale of hospitality assets. He has created and structured condominium hotels, both for investment and for sale purposes, and utilizes "cloud" condominium structures, leasehold condominiums, commercial condominiums for mixed-use hotel, retail, and residential projects to respond to regional and local land use restrictions that can make the development of traditionally structured forms of hospitality projects difficult, impractical or, even, impossible.
Shared Ownership Industry Advocate
Art is one of the leading attorneys for the timeshare and vacation ownership industry. His clients have included nearly every major timeshare company, including Disney, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Wyndham, as well as both of the largest exchange companies, Resort Condominiums International and Interval Leisure Group. His shared ownership work includes:
- Purchase and financing of properties of all types and descriptions and their conversion to all types of vacation ownership uses.
- Single site developments of a timeshare, fractional ownership, or residence club nature, as well as multiple site products designed for inclusion in a multi-site vacation or residence club.
- Entitlements and land use approvals
- Dealings with government at all levels, including drafting of complex and comprehensive timeshare legislation, including amendments to the California Business and Professions Code provisions governing the structuring and sale of timeshare products within the State of California
- Drafting, negotiating changes to and participating in the enactment of timeshare ordinances designed to regulate timesharing at the local level.
Art was the primary legal architect in the creation of the Carefree Vacation Club, the Conrad Vacation Club, the Fiesta Americana Vacation Club, the Fleetwood Vacation Club, and partnered with other counsel in the creation of the Disney Vacation Club, the Shell Vacations Club and the World-Wide Vacations Club. Products range from deeded interest single site programs to points-based clubs, and include real estate related products, yachts and motor coaches.
He advocates for the shared ownership industry, having served three separate terms as a member of the Board of Director of the American Resort Development Association and two separate terms as Chairman of the ARDA Ethics Committee. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the ARDA Ethics Committee.
