Michael Kosmas is a seasoned business transactions lawyer who leads the firm’s Global Hospitality & Leisure Practice. His practice focuses on representing some of the most sophisticated players in the hospitality industry in a wide variety of corporate transactions including acquisition and disposition, development and financing of hotels and resorts. He has particular expertise in drafting and negotiating complex management contracts between hotel owners and operators. Mr. Kosmas has represented some of the world’s largest hotel owners and operators in connection with the development, acquisition, disposition and financing of more than 300 hotel and resort properties around the globe. He is frequently called upon by clients to structure some of the hospitality industry’s most challenging transactions including documenting strategic relationships between hotel owners, operators and developers.

Mr. Kosmas began representing the industry by negotiating hotel management contracts for Grand Heritage Hotels in the mid-1990s and ultimately counseled its principals on the sale of the company to Patriot American Hospitality. Beginning in 1999 and for five years thereafter, he represented Marriott International Inc. on numerous complex transactions and was detailed for six months to the Ritz-Carlton development team. Since joining Squire Sanders in 2004, Mr. Kosmas has been using his extensive experience in the development of real estate and hotels and the negotiation of hotel management agreements and related documents for some of the key players in the global hospitality sector. He is a regular speaker at hospitality conferences around the world including the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, the NYU Hospitality Conference and the European Hotel Investment Conference.

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• Serving as lead counsel for Marriott International Inc. in negotiating four master management contracts with CNL Hospitality Inc. and Hospitality Properties Trust, two of the country’s largest hospitality REITs, for four hotel portfolios including nearly 100 hotels and resorts.
• Serving as lead counsel for the developer of a luxury resort and branded residential mixed use community along the Red Sea in Egypt.
• Serving as lead counsel for the developers of two Sheraton hotels in Central/Eastern European capital cities.
• Serving as lead counsel for the developers of two of the first eight Edition Hotels (a new Marriott brand created in concert with Ian Schrager).
• Serving as counsel to the District of Columbia and Broward County, FL in negotiations to develop convention center hotels adjacent to existing convention center facilities.
• Serving as lead counsel for Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc., a publicly traded REIT, in negotiating management contracts with Renaissance Hotel Management Co. for a portfolio of six Renaissance Hotels.
• Serving as lead counsel for Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. in negotiating the management contract with the Hyatt Corporation for the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.
• Serving as lead counsel for Hilton Hotels Corp. in negotiating the management contract for the Hilton Palmer House, Hilton’s premier Chicago hotel.
• Serving as lead counsel for Hilton Hotels Corp. in developing a management contract for its new “Waldorf=Astoria” brand and negotiation of a management contract for a 1,000 room Hilton hotel and the first new-build 500 room Waldorf=Astoria brand hotel to be built in the Bonnet Creek Resort development in Orlando.
• Serving as lead counsel for Canyon Ranch in negotiating a management contract and related agreements for Canyon Ranch Living multi-use development to be developed in Bethesda, Maryland.
• Serving as lead counsel for KSL Recreation in negotiating the management contract for the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego, one of the country’s best-known resorts.
• Serving as lead counsel for a joint venture between KB Urban Inc. and Anschutz Entertainment Group in negotiating the management contract with Marriott International for a to-be-constructed tower in downtown Los Angeles that will include a 1,000 room luxury hotel co-branded as a Ritz-Carlton and a Marriott Marquis.