Rori H. Malech

As a valued team member of clients in the real estate and hospitality industries, Rori is able to leverage her understanding of their business concerns and objectives with her deep experience and current market knowledge to navigate her clients from term sheet to closing of complex commercial transactions. Recently, Rori has been speaking to clients and the real estate community on the uptick in preferred equity transactions, sharing the depth of her experience with both joint ventures and financings and offering guidance on these transactions.

She represents local and national developers, REITs, institutional equity investors, institutional and non-institutional lenders, and hotel owners and operators with their commercial real estate development and finance transactions. These transactions involve a variety of asset types, including mixed-use development, office, retail, hotel, condominium, multifamily and residential and commercial property.

Working with clients across the United States, she assists both borrowers and lenders on financings, and hotel owners and operators on the negotiation of management and license agreements. Additionally, she partners with clients on real estate acquisitions, dispositions, workouts, and equity and debt participations.

Rori is a frequent speaker and panelist on the hospitality industry and preferred equity transactions.

• Represented Hersha Hospitality Trust on its sale of seven Manhattan limited-service hotels to a joint venture between Hersha and Cindat Capital Management Ltd., in a transaction valued at $571.4 million. The transaction included senior and mezzanine financing in an aggregate amount of $335 million from Natixis Real Estate Capital LLC and Oaktree Capital Management, L.P.
• Represented leading private equity firm in the acquisition of 38 limited service and extended stay hotels, 4,950 rooms, for $590 million, and negotiation of mortgage and mezzanine financing from two major financial institutions and the securitization of the mortgage and a mezzanine tier.
• Represented a major insurance company with a preferred equity investment in the construction of a 391-key nationally branded hotel in Chicago, Illinois for total project cost of $113 million.
• Represented Hersha Hospitality Trust in connection with the refinancing of seven Manhattan limited-service hotels owned by a joint venture between Hersha and Cindat Capital Management Ltd.  The financing consisted of a floating-rate mortgage loan in the amount of $300 million and a floating-rate mezzanine loan in the amount of $85 million. The mortgage loan is being securitized in a CMBS offering.
• Represented a major insurance company with a $150 million preferred equity investment in the acquisition and renovation of an office building in Chicago, Illinois.
• Represented a major insurance company with a preferred equity investment in the renovation of two well-known Walt Disney World hotels in Orlando, Florida.
• Represented a national lending institution with a preferred equity investment in the acquisition and development of a mixed-use property in New York City for a total project cost of $87 million.
• Represented a joint venture in the acquisition of a 34-story, one million square foot skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts for $561 million.
• Represented an institutional lender with the $159.5 million mortgage and mezzanine financing of a historic hotel in Washington, DC. The transaction included the sale of one of the floors as an air space parcel to a vacation club and the negotiation of the documents governing the relationship between the hotel and vacation club.
• Represented a major insurance company with the upsizing of a $177 million preferred equity interest in a hotel located in the heart of New York City’s Times Square.
• Advised Israel Discount Bank of New York with a $31.5 million mortgage loan to Berit Realty LLC, owner of SIXTY hotel 6 Columbus, located at 6 Columbus Circle (308 West 58th Street), New York City.
• Representation of an operator in the negotiation of a joint venture agreement for the acquisition and development of a to-be-constructed 128-room Mondrian hotel in the Old City of Istanbul, Turkey.
• Representation of an operator in the acquisition, lease and management negotiations with respect to food and beverage operations at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada, and related documentation and negotiation with respect to Delano, Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Representation of a developer in the negotiation of a purchase and sale agreement for the acquisition of a newly constructed 185-room Hyatt Place in New York City (Midtown).
• Representation of an owner in the negotiation of management and license agreements for a Crowne Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Representation of a developer in the negotiation of management and license agreements for a Courtyard by Marriott in College Park, Maryland.
• Representation of a joint venture in the negotiation of a $350 million loan secured by the St. Regis in Laguna Beach, California.
• Representation of a joint venture in the negotiation of a $201 million loan secured by the Anaheim Hilton in Anaheim, California, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of the developer.
• Representation of equity in the refinance of a $250 million loan secured by the historic and award-winning Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, in Washington, DC.
• Representation of a joint venture in the acquisition and $130 million financing of a 35-acre mixed-use development project (including hotel and branded residences as well as commercial, retail and residential) in Huntington Beach, California, known as Pacific City, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of the developer.
• Representation of equity in the acquisition of a 20-acre mixed-used development project (including retail, restaurant, hotel, entertainment, commercial, residential, education and civic space) in Miami, Florida, known as Miami Worldcenter, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of equity.
• Representation of a developer in the $46 million refinance of a GSA leased office building in Washington, DC.
• Representation of a developer in the restructure of a $200 million real estate portfolio of undeveloped land, hotels, mixed-use, office and development holdings in California and Texas.
• Representation of an equity investor in a $262 million purchase of two office buildings and a development parcel located in Washington, DC.

• Recognized as a Woman of Influence, GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum, 2024
• Recognized as a Best Lawyer for Real Estate Law, The Best Lawyers in America, 2024
• Named among Women of Influence, Real Estate Forum, 2017
• Listed for Real Estate, Legal 500 United States, 2014, 2015 and 2017