Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc.
today announced it has closed on an $8 million, two-year mezzanine loan on
the 163-room Viceroy Santa Monica, a luxury boutique hotel in Santa
Monica, CA. The loan bears interest at a rate of 912.5 basis points over LIBOR with no
LIBOR floor and with interest only payments for the initial term. Maturing
in February 2007 with three one-year extension options, the loan is locked
out from prepayment through September 2006. Any prepayment occurring after
September 2006 through the maturity date shall include a prepayment
premium of 0.5% of the original principal amount of the loan. Ashford
received an origination fee of 1%.

Financing on the Viceroy Santa Monica includes a first mortgage of
approximately $32 million by Bank of America N.A. and the $8 million
mezzanine loan originated by Ashford. Ashford’s investment is
approximately 68% to 85% of the capital structure of the financing and
generates an initial unleveraged yield of approximately 11.7%. The
borrower is a joint venture between Lubert- Adler, a real estate private
equity firm, and The Kor Group. The Viceroy Santa Monica is managed by The
Kor Group.

Located at the crossroads of Ocean Avenue and Pico Boulevard in Santa
Monica, and named one of the 50 hottest hotels in the world by Conde Nast
Traveler’s 2003 “Hot List,” Viceroy is an urban retreat overlooking the
Pacific Ocean. Each of Viceroy’s 163 rooms and suites are appointed with
Italian Designer linens and bathrobes, custom beds with down comforters
and pillows, two-line cordless telephones, DSL access, dataports and
flat-screen televisions. Viceroy features a restaurant, bar, two pools,
cabanas and a sundeck.

Commenting on the announcement, Monty J. Bennett, President and CEO of
Ashford Hospitality Trust, stated, “The Viceroy Santa Monica is a very
attractive investment given the yield, loan to value, asset quality, and
sponsorship. In addition to our hotel acquisition strategy, we continue to
finance a wide array of hotels that are diversified by location, brand,
and price segment. We are pleased to provide the Viceroy ownership group
an attractive financing solution to meet their capital needs.” Ashford
Hospitality Trust is a self-administered real estate investment trust
focused on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and
at all levels of the capital structure, including direct hotel
investments, first mortgages, mezzanine loans and sale-leaseback
transactions. Additional information can be found on the Company’s web
site at http://www.ahtreit.com/ .
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