Holland & Knight Represents Pestana Group in New York Hotel Joint Venture with Soccer Star Cristiano Ronaldo
NEW YORK (June 6, 2017) – Holland & Knight assisted Pestana Group, Portugal’s leading international tourism and leisure company and one of the largest in Europe, and its subsidiaries Pestana USA Inc. and Pestana Manhattan 39 LLC, now known as Pestana CR7 Manhattan LLC, in a hotel joint venture with an entity owned by world-famous soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. The boutique hotel will be located at 338-340 West 39th Street in New York. It is scheduled to open in late 2018.
The new joint venture, implemented and specially adapted for the New York project pursuant to a broader framework agreement previously entered into between the parties, will not only bring Ronaldo in as a significant investor in the hotel, but will also combine Ronaldo’s CR7 brand with the Pestana brand to create “Pestana CR7 New York.” It will be, under the framework agreement, one of four properties owned by Pestana and Ronaldo, operated under a joint trademark and managed by Pestana. Two hotels have already opened under the framework, one in the Funchal waterfront in Madeira and the other in downtown Lisbon, and a fourth is scheduled to open in the famous Gran Via in Madrid. Designed to appeal to millennials, the 62,387 square foot New York hotel will be 24 stories and have 176 guest rooms, a meeting space, food and beverage space, a fitness room, spa, indoor swimming pool, support facilities and other related amenities.
Holland & Knight advised Pestana on the joint venture agreement, the joint trademark license agreements, tax matters, the management services agreement, the construction loan closing, ongoing construction-related work, and other corporate and closing matters. The multi-office team, which was led by Partner Mark Stone, included Partners Neal Beaton, Robert Bernstein, Rita Dattola, Tammy Knight and Allison McCarthy, and Associate Sabrina Hamilton-Payne.
The Lisbon office of Uría Menéndez Proença de Carvalho team, led by Joao Torroaes Valente, provided assistance for the Portuguese-related aspects of the transaction and included Joana Torres Ereio, Joana Mota and Antonio Castro Caldas.