Wells Fargo Bank took control of the 610-room JW Marriott Chicago hotel Friday morning with a winning bid of nearly $251 million during a foreclosure auction.
“JW Marriott may not be the last hotel to find itself in the soup,” said Maverick Hotels and Restaurants CEO Robert Habeeb. “If a prominent hotel like that can fall into foreclosure, it’s a sign of some weakness in the market.”The hotel opened in 2010, soon after developers began transforming aging Financial District office buildings into hotels to serve convention-goers and the growing tourist trade.
Most hotel operators have so far avoided getting dragged into court by their lenders, Habeeb said, even though back in 2020 many thought the pandemic-related flood of red ink might overwhelm the industry. But the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which funneled billions to suffering businesses, along with the willingness of many lenders to renegotiate hotel loan payments, got many hotels past the initial crisis.
The real test will come when summer ends and most tourists vanish. Business travelers historically filled Chicago’s hotel rooms in colder months, but with offices nationwide less than half full, most companies are reluctant to send employees on trips.
It's COVID. 25% of us are not doing unsafe things like traveling. People are out sick both short and long term. We'll see more and more of this across all industries/sectors. The pandemic IS the economy. We've been telling you this for almost two years. Slow learners.
Crime is a problem
The public is traveling, just avoiding war zones.
Beetlejuice told me the hotels were jammed with tourists. You must be mistaken.
Thank you Chicago democrats ! EricZorn royalpratt trib still backing democrats eve after 50 years of disaster
stop blaming Covid
Won’t happen to the Hyatt chain, just sayin. Maybe someone should look at those loans and how they were dispersed?
Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: abc15 - 🏆 263. / 63 Read more »