Starwood Capital Group is an

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under t ...

headquartered in

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...

. It is managed by

Barry Sternlicht Barry Stuart Sternlicht (born November 27, 1960) is an American billionaire and the co-founder (with Bob Faith), chairman, and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, an investment fund with over $60 billion in assets under management. He is also chairma ...

. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and

Robert Faith Robert Alan Faith (born 1963/1964) is an American businessman, and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Greystar Real Estate Partners. Early life Faith grew up in Oklahoma, and earned a bachelor's degree in Petroleum Enginee ...

in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partners.

History

In 1991, at the age of 31, Sternlicht launched the firm to buy

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

buildings that were being sold by the

Resolution Trust Corporation The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was a U.S. government-owned asset management company run by Lewis William Seidman and charged with liquidating assets, primarily real estate-related assets such as mortgage loans, that had been assets ...

, created by the federal government to hold and liquidate the real estate assets owned by failed banks after the savings and loan crisis. Sternlicht raised $20 million from the families of

William Bernard Ziff Jr. William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Jr. (June 24, 1930 – September 9, 2006) was an American publishing executive. His father, William Bernard Ziff Sr., was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the mana ...

and

Carter Burden Shirley Carter Burden Jr. (August 25, 1941 – January 23, 1996) was an American politician who served in the New York City Council from 1970 to 1977. He was a great-great-great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Burden received his B. ...

of New York to fund these purchases. In 1993, the company contributed the apartment portfolio to

Sam Zell Samuel Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka, September 28, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. A former lawyer, Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm, founded in 1968. He ha ...

Equity Residential Equity Residential is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in apartments. As of December 31, 2021, the company owned or had investments in 310 properties consisting of 80,407 apartment units in Southern California, San Fr ...

in exchange for a 20% stake in the company. In 1994, in partnership with

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

, the company purchased

Westin Hotels & Resorts Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wester ...

in a $561 million transaction. In January 1995, Starwood purchased Hotel Investors Trust, an almost-bankrupt

real estate investment trust A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping cente ...

, and in 2005, acquired

Groupe du Louvre Groupe du Louvre is a French company, headquartered in Village 5, La Défense in Nanterre, France. Groupe du Louvre and Louvre Hotels Group was sold to Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Development Co., Ltd. in 2015. The company was owned ...

, which owned crystal maker

Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...

. Groupe de Louvre was sold in 2015, but Baccarat was retained by Starwood. In 2009, a consortium led by Starwood Capital bought 40% of the loan portfolio of

Corus Bankshares Corus Bankshares, Inc. (, previously ) operated as the holding company for Corus Bank, N.A., a United States company that offered consumer and corporate banking products and services. Corus Bank The bank's deposit products included checking, savin ...

, which suffered from

bank failure A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. A bank usually fails economically when the market value of its asset ...

. In 2010, the company lost an auction to buy

Extended Stay Hotels Extended Stay America, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the operator of an economy apartment hotel chain in the United States and Canada. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned and operated 557 hotel properties consisting ...

, which was in

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Starwood unsuccessfully filed an objection against the sale to

Centerbridge Partners Centerbridge Partners is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. The firm manages over $32 billion of assets

with the bankruptcy court in Manhattan. In the same year, Starwood received a majority ownership stake in

Riviera Holdings Riviera Holdings Corporation is a defunct casino operator that was based in Winchester, Nevada. It owned two casinos: the Riviera on the Las Vegas Strip, closed in 2015; and the Riviera Black Hawk in Black Hawk, Colorado, sold in 2011. History ...

, owners of the

Riviera ''Riviera'' () is an Italian word which means "coastline", ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form ''Riviera ligure'', then shortened in English. The two areas ...

hotel and casino in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and Riviera Black Hawk in Black Hawk, Colorado, after a bankruptcy reorganization. In 2012, the company began construction of a chain of hotels under the name of Baccarat Hotels and Resorts, featuring crystal chandeliers from Baccarat. In 2015, the firm sold its flagship Baccarat hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In the same year, the group partnered with

Toll Brothers Toll Brothers is a company which designs, builds, markets, sells, and arranges financing for residential and commercial properties in the United States. In 2020, the company was the fifth largest home builder in the United States, based on home ...

to develop the Pierhouse at Brooklyn Bridge Park. In December 2013, Starwood Global Opportunity Fund IX, in partnership with Vencom, bought 7 retail properties from the Swedish retail group

Kooperativa Förbundet KF ( sv, Kooperativa Förbundet, "Co-operative Union") is a federation of consumer co-operatives in Sweden and a retail group, with groceries as its core business. History KF was founded in 1899 by 41 local consumer co-operatives in order to s ...

for 3.9 billion Swedish kronor, or $593.3 million, and sold these in 2016 and 2017. That year, the company acquired seven malls from Westfield Group, including Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted and Franklin Park Mall in Toledo, with properties in Indiana, California and Washington, together dubbed Starwood West. Between 2013 and 2014, Starwood also acquired three British hospitality groups:

De Vere Group De Vere is a hotels and leisure business, which until the late 1990s was a brewing company known as Greenall's. It used to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Greenall's Brewery was ...

for 232 million,

Four-Pillars Hotels Four Pillars Hotels was a hotel chain operating in the United Kingdom. The group had six hotels, situated in Oxford, the Cotswolds and the Thames Valley, operating in the three and four star sector. In 2014 the company was acquired by America ...

for 90 million, and Principal Hayley Group for 360 million. In February 2014, Starwood Property Trust spun off Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust, a single-family rental real estate investment trust. In January 2016, Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust merged with Colony American Homes, creating Colony Starwood Homes. In 2017, it was merged into

Invitation Homes Invitation Homes Inc. is a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It is headquartered in the Comerica Bank Tower in Dallas, Texas. Dallas B. Tanner serves as chief executive officer. As of 2017, the company was reportedly the large ...

. In March 2014, the firm acquired a stake in the

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

football club, and in October 2014, Starwood purchased 7 upscale malls in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from

Taubman Centers Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020. History The company was founded in 19 ...

in a $1.4 billion transaction. In 2016, the company acquired 23,262 apartments from

for $5.365 billion. In September 2017, Starwood invested $250 million in YOTEL for a 30% stake. In 2021, Starwood's mall holdings had decreased from thirty to eight with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the retail industry, and the company selling some properties at a loss to reduce its $2 billion in CMBS mortgage debt."Sternlicht’s Starwood Gives Up on Malls After Plunge in Values" by John Gittelsohn; Bloomberg; July 13, 2021. Accessed 2022-10-25
/ref> In 2022, CEO Sternlicht voiced strong criticism of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

for creating calamitous economic conditions by needlessly raising interest rates."The_Fed_is_going_to_cause_'unbelievable_calamities'_if_they_keep_hiking,_according_to_Barry_Sternlicht"_by_Carmen_Reinicke;_CNBC
;_October_4_2022._Accessed_2022-10-25.html" ;"title="CNBC">"The Fed is going to cause 'unbelievable calamities' if they keep hiking, according to Barry Sternlicht" by Carmen Reinicke; CNBC">"The_Fed_is_going_to_cause_'unbelievable_calamities'_if_they_keep_hiking,_according_to_Barry_Sternlicht"_by_Carmen_Reinicke;_CNBC
;_October_4_2022._Accessed_2022-10-25/ref>

_Notable_real_estate_investments

_References

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; October 4 2022. Accessed 2022-10-25">CNBC">"The Fed is going to cause 'unbelievable calamities' if they keep hiking, according to Barry Sternlicht" by Carmen Reinicke; Companies.html" ;"title="CNBC
; October 4 2022. Accessed 2022-10-25/ref>

Notable real estate investments

References

{{portal">Companies">Connecticut Financial services companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in Florida Companies based in Fairfield County, Connecticut Greenwich, Connecticut Investment companies of the United States Privately held companies based in Connecticut Real estate companies of the United States