PALM BEACH, FL-The joint venture between Chatham Lodging Trust and Cerberus Capital Management recently closed on a $130 million mortgage loan, the company announced. The loan was secured by 10 formerly unencumbered hotel properties with a total of 1,707 rooms. Together, the JV owns 64 hotels with 8,329 rooms and suites.

The arrangement provides a boon for the REIT, which received a distribution of around $13.1 million. This worked out to be approximately $1 per share. According to the company, this represents 35% of Chatham’s $37 million investment into the JV, and it plans to use part of this sum to pay down open borrowings on its senior secured credit facility.

Dennis Craven, Chatham CFO spoke with GlobeSt.com about the arrangement, and highlighted that the main impact of the decision was to enable the REIT to pay down its line of credit – something the company was “anticipating.” “It provides us with a little more flexibility to continue growing Chatham down the road,” he says. “This returns cash to the JV and ultimately to the partners.”