The Holiday Inn Express of Baytown accomplished a rare feat, nabbing a $9M CMBS loan despite only four months of operating history. (Those must've been some really good waffles at the continental breakfast.) Most properties need at least 12 months before Wall Street will finance to pay off the construction loan. Aries Capital SVP Rushi Shah (pictured with his wife in Dallas) repped owner Pride Management, arranging a permanent, non-recourse loan. The 10-year money came from a team used to working together, which reassured the lender; Aries, Pride and the lender also closed a loan for a hotel development in Victoria earlier this year. This deal also survived a market change between securing and closing the loan.

Aries also performed in-house underwriting of the property projections that demonstrated a great exit for the lender. Rushi tells us those stats were more favorable than what the lender’s due diligence had unearthed, but he was able to pull in local experts to confirm Aries’ numbers. So far so good--Pride is enjoying success at the Holiday Inn Express Baytown, drawing traffic from the port and nearby corporate campuses. Pride plans to develop 20 more hotels throughout Texas and Louisiana, bringing it to 50 properties owned here.