Rigby Cooke Lawyers’ Corporate & Commercial group advised hotel investor and developer, Mazen Tabet and the Tabet Group, in the successful acquisition of the Lyall Hotel and Spa in South Yarra.
Hotels
Grounded by strong expertise in corporate and commercial property law, Rigby Cooke Lawyers multidisciplinary Hotel team has a long history of representing national and international clients within the hotel industry.
Practice lead: Michael Gough
We can help with:
Rigby Cooke Lawyers can assist you with all aspects of hotel transactions and development.
What sets us apart is our commitment to represent hotel owners only, avoiding any potential conflict with the competing interests of hotel managers, and ensuring we strive to achieve nothing but the best outcomes, in your interests only.
Our team will work with your hotel consultants, accountants, financiers, valuers, brokers and other industry consultants to give you a streamlined and seamless transactional experience.
Our clients include listed companies, private investors and developers from Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
Download our Hotels brochure: English >> | Chinese >>
Investment and divestment
Having advised on many major hotel transactions across Australia, Asia and the Middle East, we have developed specific expertise in assisting clients with corporate and real estate ownership structures, hotel acquisitions and disposals (at an asset and corporate level) of hotels in a standalone location and as part of mixed use developments, and joint ventures.
Our vast experience and good working relationship with major national and international clients, including listed companies, private investors, owners and developers, means we can connect you with interested buyers, sellers and investors.
Contracts
We advise on all contracts applicable to the development and operation of a hotel, including hotel management agreements, development and operating leases, franchise agreements, technical services agreements, operator/financier non disturbance agreements and marketing services agreements.
Planning and development
To ensure a seamless process across all aspects of planning and developing a new hotel, it is important to apply a holistic ‘all-of-project’ understanding, while also remaining agile to the micro issues that can arise.
Our full suite of planning and development legal services means we can partner with you across the whole lifecycle of your new hotel project, from project inception through to hotel opening.
We can help you with:
- planning and related land use
- environmental law
- local government issues
- property law
- subdivision
- mixed-use developments
- dispute resolution, court and VCAT representations
- owners corporation establishment and management
Construction
Construction contracts for the delivery of hotels have their own specialised requirements. They need to provide for flexibility in order to achieve value management objectives, and yet require strict compliance with the hotel brief.
We have experience in preparing construction documents for the delivery of hotels through an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process, a full Design & Construct (D&C) process and construct only, together with review and advice on security documents.
Financing
The challenges facing owners in securing hotel financing are complex. We have vast experience in the negotiation of debt finance for investment properties and portfolios, in addition to debt funding (construction and ‘take out’) for development projects, and can assist you in achieving a successful result.
As part of our financing services we negotiate third party financing documentation such as builder’s tripartite and operator non disturbance agreements.
Transaction structuring and tax advice
Our team can advise you how to structure your hotel transaction or development to achieve both maximum tax efficiency, including stamp duty considerations and asset protection.
We assist residents and non-residents investing in Australia to manage complex Australian investment regulations and Federal and State tax obligations to achieve commercial objectives, asset protection needs and tax effectiveness.
Our industry recognised lawyers can assist with tax planning including selecting investment structures and investment methods to manage and legally minimise applicable taxes.
Operations
As a full-service commercial firm, we have the expertise to assist you with operational aspects of your hotel, providing advice on:
- workplace relations, industrial relations and OH&S
- corporate migration and visa requirements
- supply and distribution agreements
- liquor licensing including all licence applications and transfers
- development and enforcement of intellectual property rights