According to a statement on the St. Louis-based hotel chain's Website, Adam's Mark about-faced on the deal after Columbia missed a contract deadline for completing its due diligence. But Columbia Sussex director of development Joe Yung says Adam's Mark is "completely unreasonable" in declining to proceed with the sale.
"We asked for more time to complete surveys and to finish due diligence, which turned out to be more of an issue than at first expected with the myriad of litigation that is on the properties," Yung tells GlobeSt.com. "We asked for seven days and we were not given the time."
Adams mark has been in a legal quagmire since 1999, when charges of racism against the chain resulted in a boycott by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and lawsuits charging the company with discrimination.
Yung also says assertions by Kummer that Columbia was unable to finance the transaction are unfounded. "Ultimately, we had commitment letters from all of his lenders to assume his existing debt. I take offense at the fact that he's out there saying we couldn't secure financing because ultimately we did."
Adam's Mark spokesperson Randy Myers would not comment on the specifics of the cancelled deal, but denies that allegations of cash problems came from the Adam's Mark camp. "We never said that," Myers tells GlobeSt.com. "I did see that printed in a published report but it wasn't part of our release."
Sonnenblick principal and managing director Mark Gordon, who was brokering the sale for Adam's Mark, refused GlobeSt.com's requests for comment.
The assets involved in the aborted Columbia transaction include hotels in Houston, Philadelphia, Memphis, Colorado Springs, Clearwater, FL and Columbia, S.C.
The broken deal marks a major change in Adam's Mark's business plan. As recently as last fall, there have been reports that all 24 of its hotel properties were on the block. In November, that number was reportedly pared to eight and then further trimmed to six. Myers says the six-hotel deal with Columbia Sussex is the only potential sale confirmed by Adam's Mark.
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