Jeffrey Blake Stern

Jeffrey B. Stern is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office, and serves as co-chair of the firm's global Hospitality, Resort and Timeshare Group.

Mr. Stern concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate development, timeshare and hospitality, with an emphasis on the resort development and finance industries. His clients consist of a wide variety of owners, developers, lenders, financial institutions, and marketing and management companies, ranging in size from entrepreneurial ventures to Fortune 100 corporations in connection with the following property types: timeshare resorts and multisite vacation clubs, second home and homesite developments, mixed-use and resort community developments, hotels and condominium hotels, golf course, ski resort and country club communities.

Mr. Stern's practice concentrates on project acquisition and development, drafting of project documents, federal and state registrations, exemptions and regulatory issues, and management, marketing and sales issues. As lender's counsel, Mr. Stern is experienced in providing counsel to financial institutions, insurance companies and national finance companies in the areas of acquisition, construction, permanent and receivables financing, as well as the securitization of receivables. As part of his practice, Mr. Stern counsels clients on a number of federal statutes and regulations affecting real estate, including the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act and Regulation Z, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulations, as well as state timeshare registration, condominium, real estate licensing and seller of travel laws and regulations.

Mr. Stern's recent assignments include:

• represented timeshare company in obtaining Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)
• represented a large New York-based private equity company in two securitizations of timeshare notes receivable and two related warehouse loan facilities
• represented a publicly traded global provider of membership and leisure services to the timeshare industry in the acquisition of an internationally branded hotel's timeshare division and in the long-term master license agreement that grants the buyer the exclusive right to use the international hotel brand in the timeshare space
• represented a large national 20-lender syndication group that made a $750 million loan to the national timeshare developer of the Holiday Inn Vacation Club
• represented a national timeshare club developer in the sale of a portion of his company to a New York-based private equity company
• represented Florida-based title agency in the sale of its company to an international trustee business
• represented a large private equity company in its acquisition of a national timeshare developer
• negotiated and documented the strategic alliance formed between international hotel brand and major Florida-based timeshare developer to create the new timeshare brand Holiday Inn Club Vacations and ongoing work branding and developing new club sites
• negotiated and documented affiliation agreement and various marketing, management and technical assistance agreements between hotel branded timeshare vacation club adding fractional resort in Florida as a component site to club
• drafted project and vacation club documents for three points-based timeshare vacation clubs and prepared national marketing compliance strategy to permit marketing in 40 states throughout the U.S.
• provided due diligence counsel to national lenders and Wall Street investment company on the acquisition of timeshare receivables loan portfolios in excess of $1 billion
• prepared timeshare and fractional project documents for more than 50 U.S. fractional and timeshare projects and points-based timeshare vacation clubs
• represented national lenders in Chapter 11 proceedings of several national timeshare companies
• represented American Resort Development Association (ARDA) on lobbying timeshare issues before Congress

Mr. Stern has been active for many years as a trustee, committee chairman and counsel to ARDA. A contributing editor to Resort Development Law Reporter, he has authored a number of articles relating to lending and regulation of real estate and has chaired seminars and lectured on many issues facing the recreational resort and timeshare industries.