Jones Lang LaSalle arranged the $165 million refinancing of the 575-room JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Ariz., on behalf of Starr Pass Resort Developments LLC. The hotel is located just outside of downtown Tucson and includes a 27-hole championship golf club and 20,000-square-foot full-service spa. Construction of the hotel was completed in January of 2005.

Matt Comfort and Ben Singer of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Real Estate Investment Banking (REIB) group, conducted a comprehensive marketing process that generated strong bids. The transaction was awarded to a Wall Street lender on the basis of its highly competitive spread and ability to address the key objectives of the borrower, including a flexible structure that allowed the borrower to best execute its business plan.

“The hotel’s abbreviated operating performance history posed a challenge, but the strong year-to-date 2006 performance and the emergence of Tucson as an attractive market created a competitive atmosphere among lenders,” said Ben Singer, senior vice president, Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets. “This generated innovative bids and resulted in the ability to perfectly match a lender with the project.”

This refinancing further illustrates that experienced sponsors with a clear and aggressive business plan are attractive to the capital markets,” said Alan Tantleff, executive vice president, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in New York.

During the past three years, Jones Lang LaSalle’s REIB team has closed over $3.0 billion of debt, mezzanine and equity transactions, many of which with non-traditional capital sources. The REIB team provides owners and developers with access to equity, mezzanine finance and debt capital with a strong advisory approach. The group’s senior professionals have an average of more than 20 years of experience in the institutional real estate capital markets. Jones Lang LaSalle’s REIB unit is not beholden to correspondent lender relationships, thereby ensuring that owner and developer clients obtain the best representation and execution.