Some hotel borrowers are venting their frustration over special servicers’ unavailability for advice at the same time the hoteliers face the threat of default. “I’m in no-man’s land,” fumed Nitin Shah, president of Imperial Investments Group in Norcross, Ga. at the 23rd annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference held recently in Atlanta.

Shah was frustrated at the prospect of spending $1 million on hotel improvements such as an upgraded lobby and new flat-screen TVs at his Imperial Hotels while facing a maturing $10 million debt. Falling  property values and cash flow concerns over the last three years have affected his ability to repay the maturing debt next year, he said. 

It could be helpful to him to talk with a special servicer about ways to restructure or modify his debt, but as panelists at a conference seminar on special servicers pointed out, borrowers are not allowed to talk with the special servicer unless they are actually in default or a default is imminent. 

“So you’re not in default, but this guy won’t talk to you and the loan won’t go to a special servicer until you are in default.  I don’t have a problem — I’m foreseeing a problem,” asserted Shah. “I’m about to spend $1 million. Why should I spend $1 million when my loan is coming due, and there’s no way the value of the property is there for me to pay the whole $10 million?” 

He is required to upgrade the hotels. “The revenues are down, but the franchiser doesn’t give a crap. He wants new televisions. He wants the new lobby. New signs. So we are caught between a rock and a hard place. Here we have to spend money to maintain the brand,” he said. 

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