Robert Johnson's RLJ Urban Lodging Fund buys Birmingham hotel

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation (GMACCM) has provided $10.5 million in floating-rate, acquisition financing to RLJ Birmingham UAB Hotel LLC to purchase the Marriott Courtyard at 1820 Fifth Ave. South. RLJ Birmingham UAB Hotel is a division of RLJ Urban Lodging Fund, a subsidiary of RLJ Development LLC.

Privately held RLJ Development, LLC (“RLJ”) was launched in December 2000 in Bethesda, Maryland, and today is America’s largest African-American hotel investment company.

The company was formed by Mr. Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (“BET”), the pioneering cable television network, Dr. Sheila C. Johnson and Thomas J. Baltimore, Jr. RLJ was created to capitalize on management’s ability to attract low cost capital and identify well located throughout North America and the Caribbean.

The Courtyard Birmingham, is a 74,600-square-foot, full-service hotel comprised of 122 guestrooms. Amenities include a 49-seat restaurant with a lounge, 2,032 of meeting space, an exercise room, a business center, sundries shop and guest laundry.
 
The transaction was arranged and underwritten by GMACCM’s Hospitality Industry Division, and RLJ Birmingham UAB Hotel, LLC received the funding.
 
According to GMACCM Vice President Chris Clark, “As a result of our strong relationship with the borrower, we were able to complete the entire transaction in less than a month.”

"RLJ was attracted to the investment both because Birmingham is a great community and because of the strong affiliation of the hotel with UAB and the medical complexes," says executive vice president Ross Bierkan. "The hotel market in Birmingham is a little bit overbuilt in general, but we thought that that location was in an excellent position to capture demand specific to downtown and UAB."

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation (GMACCM), a wholly owned subsidiary of GMAC Commercial Holding Corp., it is a premier financial services firm with extensive funding sources that, coupled with a broad menu of innovative financing programs, serve the needs of borrowers of commercial real estate debt as well as the providers of such capital.

GMACCM is an industry leader in loan origination, servicing, asset management, investment management and technology services.  The diverse lending and servicing specialist and its affiliates have more than 100 offices worldwide.

GMACCM has a servicing portfolio of more than $265 billion and provides a variety of financing products and services including permanent, interim, mezzanine and construction lending as well as equity capital for commercial real estate. GMACCM has specialized lending units focused on healthcare, hospitality and construction lending.