Neverland Ranch and Santa Barbara Vineyard Owner Behind Nearly $2 Billion on Loans

CherubimII

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Billionaire Investor and Trump Donor Thomas Barrack Jr. Seeks COVID-Related Financial Relief

Neverland Ranch and Santa Barbara Vineyard Owner Behind Nearly $2 Billion on Loans


By Nick Welsh
Tue Sep 15, 2020 | 12:30pm
Thomas Barrack Jr., Santa Barbara vineyard and Neverland Ranch owner, polo padrone, investment capital mogul, and Trump consigliere, has reportedly been lobbying the Trump administration for COVID-related financial relief, having gotten nearly $2 billion behind on loans he took out to buy what the New York Times described as a “collection” of 160 hotels.

Barrack ran Trump’s Inauguration Committee and donated $271,000 to Trump’s election committee in 2016. It was Barrack who introduced Trump to now-disgraced political consultant Paul Manafort — who briefly ran the Trump campaign and is now serving a seven-and-half-year sentence for loan fraud and a host of financial transgressions summed up by the federal judge who imposed the sentence as “gaming the system.”
Barrack is one of several big-time Trump donors who are now lobbying Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to extend the boundaries of federal COVID relief to include large commercial investment enterprises. Such relief would require congressional approval, and to date, Congress has shown no inclination to oblige. According to reports in the Times, there’s reluctance even from some within the Treasury Department who worry about squandering public tax dollars on companies, known as “zombies,” that have little chance of recovering.
https://www.independent.com/2020/09...rack-jr-seeks-covid-related-financial-relief/

Here's the Follow-up story:

Colony Capital Sells Six Massive Hotel Portfolios, Unloads $2.7B in Debt
Deal with Highgate includes 197 hotel properties
BY
GREG CORNFIELD SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 6:35 PM

Colony Capital has sold almost 200 hotels to hospitality management firm Highgate in exchange for $67.5 million and the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt.

The deal included six portfolios with 22,676 rooms across 197 hotel properties, Colony announced today. The deal is a continuation of the firm’s pivot to focus exclusively on digital infrastructure, as well as a solution to the struggles facing the hospitality industry. The hotels span several states, including California, New York, Texas and Nevada.
In July, Colony announced a $1.2 billion data center investment in Vantage Data Centers as the firm hopes to position itself as the only global REIT that owns and operates every part of the “digital ecosystem.” This time last year, Colony sold its industrial operating platform to Blackstone for $5.7 billion, which was a major landmark in the transition.

Nareit US Real Estate Index Series and JLL research recently reported that the lodging and resorts sector nationwide has been the worst-performing by far due to coronavirus in terms of total returns after the second quarter. But compared to all other major assets, data centers have shown the best positive returns in that time.

However, Colony reported a net loss of $2 billion in the second quarter, and, earlier this year, the firm defaulted on $3.2 billion in hotel loans, according to L.A. Business Journal. Early in the pandemic, Colony’s executive chairman and former CEO, Thomas Barrack, predicted the REIT would struggle and said commercial mortgages were on the brink of collapse. The firm’s hotel exposure is filled with CMBS loans that were hitting the fan amid the global crisis. Colony cited “strategic benefits of exiting the hospitality business” in the announcement of the hotel deal with Highgate.

“Despite the unprecedented disruption in hospitality over the past six months, we remain bullish on the long-term secular trends in our industry,” Mahmood Khimji, co-founder of Highgate, said in a statement.

Colony Capital CEO Marc Ganzi said the firm is delivering on its commitment to dispose of non-core assets. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

Earlier this week, the high-end Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel in Beverly Hills closed for good due to financial strains brought on by the coronavirus shutdowns. In New York City, hotel sales plummeted 70 percent this year, and Manhattan’s 478-room Hilton Times Square will close in October.
L.A.-based Colony Capital manages a $46 billion portfolio, including over $20 billion in digital real estate investments through Digital Colony, its digital infrastructure platform. Highgate has more than $10 billion of hospitality assets under management.
Moelis & Company served as financial adviser to Colony, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal counsel. Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to Highgate.

https://commercialobserver.com/2020...ion-debt-hospitality-los-angeles-hospitality/
 
Someone asked me to provide a summary of the above articles about Thomas Barrack.
Here it is:


Thomas Barrack and his Colony Capital are deep in debt:

Colony reported a net loss of $2 billion in the second quarter, and, earlier this year, the firm defaulted on $3.2 billion in hotel loans, according to L.A. Business Journal. Early in the pandemic, Colony’s executive chairman and former CEO, Thomas Barrack, predicted the REIT would struggle and said commercial mortgages were on the brink of collapse. The firm’s hotel exposure is filled with CMBS loans that were hitting the fan amid the global crisis. Colony cited “strategic benefits of exiting the hospitality business” in the announcement of the hotel deal with Highgate.


Thomas Barrack Jr., Santa Barbara vineyard and Neverland Ranch owner, polo padrone, investment capital mogul, and Trump consigliere, has reportedly been lobbying the Trump administration for COVID-related financial relief, having gotten nearly $2 billion behind on loans he took out to buy what the New York Times described as a “collection” of 160 hotels.


Well, he couldn't get the COVID-19 related financial relief.
So, he did the following:

Colony Capital(who is Thomas Barrack)has sold almost 200 hotels to hospitality management firm Highgate in exchange for $67.5 million and the assumption of his $2.7 billion in debt.

In addition, Colony Capital is getting completely out of the hotel and hospitality business.

 
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So....um..... I'm not understanding what this has to do with mj or Neverland. I thought Neverland was still for sale anyway
 
But there seem to be other potentially profitable financial interests, according to this old article from 30th July 2019:

House Dems blast Trump insider in new report, allege profit motive in push for Saudi nuclear plan

A longtime Trump insider has been pushing a proposal to build dozens of nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia while seeking to avoid restrictions on the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology and has at times stood to profit from the effort, according to an investigative report by the House Oversight Committee.

"Today's report reveals new and extensive evidence that corroborates Committee whistle-blowers and exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who chairs the committee.

The 50-page report, which relied on 60,000 documents and statements from whistle-blowers inside the administration, was made public Monday. It focuses on the actions of Thomas Barrack, a wealthy Los Angeles businessman who oversaw President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, as well as earlier efforts by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to push a Saudi nuclear energy plan. Investigators said they found evidence that "private parties with close ties to the President wield[ed] outsized influence over U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia."

"These new documents raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President's friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons," according to the report.

.........The White House did not cooperate with the investigation, providing none of the documents requested. Congressional investigators said documents they did recover showed that some Trump administration officials used personal email accounts to communicate with executives from private companies pushing the plan. In several instances, it was "unclear" if those officials "took steps to preserve this email as required by the Presidential Records Act," the report said.

The White House declined to comment...............

Republicans also argued that Barrack had no conflicts by promoting the nuclear proposal because he ultimately did not join the administration.

The investigation focuses on company called IP3 International, which is run by a group of retired American generals, and their years-long effort to promote a plan to sell dozens of nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. The company has been aided in its efforts by two well-known Trump advisers: Flynn and Barrack, a California investment executive who has deep ties in the Middle East.

The report alleges that Flynn and later Barrack helped push the proposal during the 2016 campaign, in the White House and later during briefings with senior White House officials including Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and ultimately President Trump. IP3 officials also briefed cabinet officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, according to the report.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hou...nsider-report-allege-profit/story?id=64631731

The above is interesting in the light that John Hudson of the Washington Post is today reporting a massive US/ UAE arms deal. (Saudi Arabia and the UAE are 'strategically aligned'):

Trump administration just gave Congress formal notification for a massive arms transfer to the United Arab Emirates: 50 F-35s, 18 MQ-9 Reapers with munitions; a $10 billion munitions package including thousands of Mk 82 dumb bombs, guided bombs, missiles & more, per source
 
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