Firm News
SRZ Represents Hawkins Way and Värde Partners in Hotel Acquisition
February 8, 2023
Schulte Roth & Zabel represented Hawkins Way Capital and Värde Partners in their recently announced $153.4 million acquisition of 525 Lexington Avenue from Deka Immobilien. The Midtown Manhattan property comprises a 655-room, 406,261 square foot tower across 35 stories. A designated landmark building, the 1924-built property previously operated as a Marriott International branded hotel focused on corporate and business travel before closing at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hawkins Way Capital is a vertically integrated real estate company focused on value-add and opportunistic investments across various asset classes and geographies. Värde Partners is a leading global alternative investment firm specializing in credit and credit-related assets. Deka Immobilien is a German real estate investment firm and subsidiary of DekaBank.
The acquisition brings the total capitalization of the joint venture formed by Hawkins Way Capital and Värde Partners to more than $1 billion within its first year with a portfolio of eight value-add and distressed hospitality and housing assets in major U.S. cities.
The Schulte Roth & Zabel team was led by partner Julian Wise and included associate James Koenderman.
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Alerts
On June 28, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend existing anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) program[1] regulations to require that financial institutions establish, implement and maintain effective, risk-based and reasonably designed AML/CFT programs with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process (hereinafter, “Proposed Rule”).[2] For purposes of the Proposed Rule, “financial institutions” include: banks; broker dealers; mutual funds; futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) and introducing brokers in commodities (“IB-Cs”); insurance companies; money services businesses (“MSBs”); casinos and card clubs; dealers in precious metals, precious stones or jewels; operators of credit card systems; loan or finance companies; and housing government sponsored enterprises.[3] In addition to establishing minimum risk assessment requirements for these AML/CFT programs, the Proposed Rule would require that financial institutions document each component of their AML/CFT programs and make this documentation available to FinCEN or its designee, which can include the appropriate agency to which FinCEN has delegated examination authority,[4] or the appropriate SRO.[5] The Proposed Rule would also require that these AML/CFT programs be approved and overseen by the financial institution’s board of directors or, if the financial institution does not have a board of directors, an equivalent governing body.
Alerts
On June 28, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend existing anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) program[1] regulations to require that financial institutions establish, implement and maintain effective, risk-based and reasonably designed AML/CFT programs with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process (hereinafter, “Proposed Rule”).[2] For purposes of the Proposed Rule, “financial institutions” include: banks; broker dealers; mutual funds; futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) and introducing brokers in commodities (“IB-Cs”); insurance companies; money services businesses (“MSBs”); casinos and card clubs; dealers in precious metals, precious stones or jewels; operators of credit card systems; loan or finance companies; and housing government sponsored enterprises.[3] In addition to establishing minimum risk assessment requirements for these AML/CFT programs, the Proposed Rule would require that financial institutions document each component of their AML/CFT programs and make this documentation available to FinCEN or its designee, which can include the appropriate agency to which FinCEN has delegated examination authority,[4] or the appropriate SRO.[5] The Proposed Rule would also require that these AML/CFT programs be approved and overseen by the financial institution’s board of directors or, if the financial institution does not have a board of directors, an equivalent governing body.