Steven M. Lutt

Member | Transactions

11 Grand Central East
New York, New York 10017

New York
Connecticut

Represented a private foreign investor in its $54 million purchase of an internationally branded hotel in NYC, together with structuring for the transaction and negotiations with the hotel manager and franchisor.
Represented a foreign family office investor on its $16 million minority interest joint venture investment with an international hotel operating company and U.S. based owner in the purchaser of two boutique hotels and two office buildings all adjacently located in Beverly Hills, CA for ultimate redevelopment of a mixed-use hospitality, residential and office property.
Represented a U.S. based family office over a nine-year period in connection with its:
- Initial 90% joint venture investment in an LLC that acquired a branded hotel in Boca Raton, Florida;
- Buy-out of the minority partners’ interests in the hotel joint venture;
- Refinancing the first mortgage loan on the property in the amount of $35 million;
- Negotiation of a new hotel management agreement between the hotel owner and a third-party hotel operator; and
- Sale of the hotel to a third-party purchaser for a purchase price of $50.5 million and negotiation with the branded hotel franchisor in connection with the sale.
Represented a China-based investor in connection with its:
- acquisition of a corporate training center/hotel located in Rockland County, NY for $60 million, including negotiation of new hotel management agreement on behalf of purchaser and negotiation of one year leaseback of portion of the property to seller by purchaser; and
- acquisition of a resort/hotel property situated on 570 acres in the New York Hudson Valley region for $13.8 million for use by purchaser as a corporate training center.
Represented an internationally branded hotel management company in connection with its negotiation of hotel management and license agreements—including equity and debt investments by the company in select properties—across several US hotels.
Represented hotel developer/owner of a resort property located in Mexico in connection with its negotiation of suite of resort, golf and residences management, operating and branding agreements with an international luxury brand hotel company.
Represented a Middle Eastern institutional investor in connection with its joint venture common and preferred equity investment in a US$400 million branded hotel and residential condominium project in the United States.
Represented the former owner of the SLS Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (n/k/a the Sahara Las Vegas) in connection with its restructuring and eventual sale of the property to the Meruelo Group, and its negotiations with its branded hotel manager.
Represented Revel AC, Inc., a resort, hotel and casino in Atlantic City, N.J. (n/k/a the Ocean Casino Resort), in connection with certain restaurant and club leasing arrangements, and real estate matters related to its chapter 11 proceeding including the proposed and ultimate sale of the property
Represented a foreign based investor in connection with its separate sales of four multi-family properties located in Houston, Texas for an aggregate purchase price of $66.9 million.
Represented a global alternative asset management group in connection with its joint venture investment for the purchase of a multi-family property located in NYC valued in excess of $100 million, including assumption of Freddie Mac loan and foreign co-investment transaction. Also represented the group on two smaller investments in joint ventures to purchase and redevelop commercial properties in Connecticut, including addressing structuring and financing matters.
Represented PWM Property Management LLC in the sale of its interests in the commercial office tower located at 245 Park Avenue in New York City to an affiliate of SL Green Realty Corp., the largest landlord in Manhattan. The transaction was valued at approximately US$2 billion.
Represented an international private equity fund based in Hong Kong, in its investments in joint ventures for two office tower projects and a luxury residential condominium project, all in New York City, and related divestitures from two of the projects.
Represented a China-based investor in connection with:
- its US$270 million investment, as 80 percent equity partner, and first outside investor with leading world-wide developer for the development of a 1.3 million rentable square-foot property consisting of an office building and retail areas in the Hudson Yards district of NYC; and
- its US$201 million investment, as 80 percent equity partner for the redevelopment of an existing high-profile property located in Brooklyn, NY into approximately 622,000 of new rentable square feet of office space to be overbuilt on existing retail portion of the property.
Represented a foreign investor in connection with its investment in two joint ventures developing senior living facilities in New York City.
Represented a Middle Eastern institutional investor in connection with its (i) limited partnership investment in a multibillion-dollar mixed-use development project in the Hudson Yards district of NYC; and (ii) joint venture common and preferred equity investment in a US$400 million branded hotel and residential condominium project in the United States.
Represented Kohler Co. in the multi-jurisdictional carve-out and sale of its energy business to Platinum Equity and its continued investment in its energy business in partnership with Platinum Equity.
Represented Aramco, one of the world’s largest integrated energy and chemical companies, on its entry into an Equity Purchase Agreement with US-based automotive services provider Valvoline, Inc. to acquire Valvoline, Inc.’s Global Products Business for US$2.65 billion.
Represented NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG), an integrated power company involved in energy generation and retail electricity, in its sale of various assets, including sale and lease-back of the land underlying Astoria Generating Station, to Beacon Wind Land LLC, a joint venture formed by Equinor and BP.
Represented Onward Energy, a portfolio company of J.P. Morgan Asset Management Infrastructure Investments Group, in its acquisition of two combined-cycle, gas-fired power generation facilities located in South Carolina and Maryland.
Represented Calpine Corporation in transactions, including in:
- the sale of Calpine to Constellation (Nasdaq: CEG) in a cash and stock transaction valued at an equity purchase price of approximately $16.4 billion, composed of 50 million shares of Constellation stock and $4.5 billion in cash plus the assumption of approximately $12.7 billion of Calpine net debt; and
- its acquisition of the Quail Run Energy Center in Odessa, Texas, from Lotus Infrastructure Partners.
Represented EnCap Investments L.P., a leading private equity firm specializing in the energy industry, in its sale of Broad Reach Power LLC, one of the premier independent utility-scale energy storage and renewable energy platforms in the United States and a portfolio company of EnCap, to the French multinational utility company ENGIE.
Represented Beal Bank USA in its sale of (1) Harquahala Generating Facility, a 1,092 MW natural gas-fired, combined cycle power plant located in Maricopa County, Arizona, to a joint venture formed by BlackRock and Capital Power, (2) La Paloma Generating Facility, a 1,160 MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant located in Kern County, California, to Capital Power, and (3) New Athens Generating Facility, a 1,080 MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant located in Athens, New York, and Millennium Generating Facility, a 360 MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle generating facility located in Charlton, Massachusetts, to Gate City Power – NE Generation LLC.
Represented Altria Group, Inc. in the US$1.2 billion sale by its subsidiary, UST LLC, of its Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (Ste. Michelle) business to Sycamore Partners Management, L.P.
Represented Motiva Enterprises in connection with its acquisition of Flint Hills Resources’ chemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas.
Represented Ultrapar Participacoes SA in the US$1.3 billion sale of its specialized chemicals unit, Oxiteno, to Thailand’s Indorama Ventures PCL. The transaction included all of Oxiteno’s operations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, United States, and Uruguay.
Represented Macquarie Infrastructure Partners in the acquisition of Netrality Data Centers from funds managed by Abrams Capital Management.
Represented Macquarie Asset Management, the world’s largest infrastructure manager, in its acquisition of DTG Recycle, Washington State’s leading independent vertically integrated non-MSW recycling business.