Harry G. Spirides, President of Spirides Hotel Finance Company
TAMPA, FL—Spirides Hospitality Finance Company has successfully provided and the borrower has officially closed a $13.5 million construction and permanent mortgage loan made by a Southeast U.S. headquartered bank to finance the development of a new Comfort Suites in Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, Florida.
This new 127-suite, 5-story Comfort Suites will be built on 2.5 acres of land located at 11942 Ravello Resort Drive. Located in Lake Buena Vista and just off of Interstate 4, the site is a short drive from the entrance to Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs shopping, dining, and entertainment complex near the City of Orlando, in Orange County, Florida.
The Orlando, Florida metropolitan area has a very large number of attractions and demand generators. Nicknamed the “Theme Park Capital of the World,” this area is home to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld Orlando. Over 75 million people visited Orlando in 2018 making it the United States’ most visited destination. The Orange County Convention Center features over 2 million square feet of exhibition and meeting space. The metro Orlando area is also a major industrial and hi-tech center.
The terms of the financing provided by Spirides Hospitality Finance Company for this new Comfort Suites development include a 25-year term and amortization, fixed interest rate, a 72% loan-to-cost ratio, interest only monthly mortgage payments for the first 18 months of the loan through the construction period, and an interest rate of 4.25%.
“The terms of this loan are very favorable for our client, the borrower, especially given the fact that the vast majority of lenders have paused lending to hotels during the current coronavirus pandemic. I believe the lender shares my opinion that this hotel development project is very unique since it will be located so close to the entrance to Walt Disney World and that this particular global leisure travel and meetings destination is more economically resilient than most other markets. The borrower’s selection of the Comfort Suites brand by Choice Hotels will serve him well. That upper midscale, all-suite concept is a perfect fit for the cost conscious, family-centric demographic of a large number of hotel guests who visit Walt Disney World each year,” says Harry G. Spirides, President of Spirides Hospitality Finance Company who led the debt placement team representing the borrower in this transaction.
Spirides adds, “It is great to see the loan close at this point in time. With millions of doses of vaccines now being administered across this country along with the federal government’s new economic stimulus legislation that was recently enacted, I believe the timing of this hotel’s grand opening will coincide with a robust economic recovery. In addition to providing another round of PPP loans, this new legislation waives all SBA lender and borrower fees on all new SBA loans and instructs the SBA to make all principal and interest loan payments on behalf of borrowers for the first 6 months of all new SBA loans approved between February 1st and September 30th, 2021. Additionally, the federal government will now guarantee all newly approved SBA 7(a) loans to 90% of the loan amount leaving lenders with very little risk exposure.”
