Michael S. Kosmas
Partner Corporate & Finance
Languages
English
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
For three decades, Michael has represented many of the global hospitality and leisure industry’s key players in connection with the development, acquisition, disposition and financing of more than 750 hotel and resort properties on six continents around the globe. He has significant experience in drafting and negotiating complex franchise and management contracts between hotel owners, brand managers, and hotel operators.
Michael’s clients include national lodging REITs, family offices with global hotel holdings, private equity funds, and prominent hotel developers, who routinely call on him to structure some of the hospitality industry’s most challenging transactions. He has also been the lead on hotel projects as part of mixed-use developments, public private partnerships and hotels with significant branded residences components, and led the teams for the acquisition and disposition of numerous hotel portfolios, some including as many as twenty hotels.
Michael has devoted a significant part of his pro bono service to addressing the real estate and other needs of charitable organizations in the Washington, D.C. area.
Prior to entering private practice, Michael served for nearly a decade as a senior aide to the late U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley, namesake of the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, where he handled, among other matters, the Congresswoman’s foreign affairs portfolio.
Representative experience
The developer of the under-construction Ritz-Carlton, Paradise Valley, on its US$585M construction loan refinance in 2023.*
Two national publicly traded lodging REITs on the negotiation of all hotel franchise and management agreements and portfolio asset management matters.*
A national publicly traded lodging REIT on its acquisition of a portfolio of six luxury hotels in the U.S., and the negotiation of new hotel management agreements.*
A prominent Middle Eastern hotel developer/operating company on the acquisition of its first European hotel, an upper-upscale hotel in Germany.*
The developers of two upper/upscale hotels in Central/Eastern European capital cities (Prague, Czech Republic and Riga, Latvia).*
A foundation associated with one of the top public universities in the U.S. on the development of a luxury hotel on university grounds, which opened in 2023.*
A prominent U.S. city on its TIF financing and other significant investment in an approximately 1,200 room convention hotel.*
A joint venture between a U.S.-based private equity fund and a Middle Eastern investment group on the acquisition of a portfolio of hotels in the U.S. Midwest.*
A prominent family office in connection with the development of a Four Seasons Hotel & Resort and Private Residences in the U.S.*
One of the world’s largest hotel operating companies on negotiating the replacement of its hotel leases with hotel management agreements for the company’s Paris and Hamburg hotels.*
A prominent Jordanian investor on the development of a luxury resort / mixed-use project along the Red Sea in Egypt with a prominent U.S. boutique hotel brand.*
A prominent global hotel brand manager on creating a form hotel management agreement in connection with its launch of a new iconic luxury hotel brand.*
Ownership of one of the most well-known resorts in the Dominican Republic on connection with the further development of the resort.*
One of the country’s most prominent wellness-focused hotel/spa companies onnegotiating hotel management agreements as part of the company’s global expansion.*
A joint venture between two prominent U.S. development companies onnegotiating the hotel management contract for a multi-branded hotel tower in downtown Los Angeles.*
A national publicly traded lodging REIT for an initiative to outsource F&B operations in several hotels in its U.S. portfolio.*
One of the world’s largest hotel operating companies on the sale of four hotel portfolios, including nearly 100 hotels and resorts to two of the U.S.’ largest publicly traded national lodging REITs.*
One of the world’s largest hotel operating companies in negotiating four hotel management agreements with two of the U.S.’ largest publicly traded national lodging REITs for four hotel portfolios.*
A prominent U.S. hotel owner in connection with making guest rooms in its U.S. hotels available for no charge to physicians and hospital staff in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.*
*Matter handled prior to joining Hogan Lovells.
Credentials
- J.D., University of Virginia, 1993
- B.A., Loyola University Maryland, 1990
- Colombia
- Maryland