Extended Stay America - Budget Inn Charlotte Nc

Extended Stay America, Inc. is the operator of an economy, extended-stay hotel chain consisting of 629 properties in the United States and Canada. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a "paired share" with the real estate investment trust ESH Hospitality, Inc., the owner of the hotels. Extended Stay America is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

History

Extended Stay America was founded on January 9, 1995 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida by a George D. Johnson, Jr. and Wayne Huizenga, both former executives from Viacom and its subsidiary Blockbuster. The first two Extended Stay America hotels opened in August 1995 in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Marietta, Georgia. The company was listed on the NASDAQ on December 14, 1995. Extended Stay America acquired the extended-stay hotel chain StudioPLUS on April 11, 1997. The company also developed the Crossland Economy Studios brand as a budget, extended-stay hotel compared the mid-priced StudioPLUS and economy Extended Stay America brands. The corporate headquarters was moved to Spartanburg in September 2001.

Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, acquired Extended Stay America in May 2004 for a total cost of US$3.1 billion in cash and debt. At the time of the merger, Extended Stay America operated 475 hotels; Blackstone increased that number with the addition of 132 from Homestead Studio Suites. Homestead, which was founded by Security Capital in 1992, had been acquired by Blackstone in November 2001 for US$740 million. All of Blackstone's extended-stay hotelsâ€"consisting of the Crossland, Extended Stay America, Homestead, StudioPlus, and, eventually, Extended Stay Deluxe brandsâ€"were managed together by Extended Stay Hotels.

Blackstone sold Extended Stay Hotels in June 2007 to the The Lightstone Group for US$8 billion. The deal, financed with US$7 billion of debt, was one of several multibillion-dollar hotel and casino sales made that year. On June 15, 2009, Extended Stay America filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. After the Great Recession decimated leisure and business travel, Extended Stay faced shortages in liquidity stemming from the leveraged buyout by Lightstone two years before. Through debtor-in-possession financing, it was able to continue operating rather than to face liquidation.

In July 2010, an investment consortium made up of Blackstone, Paulson & Co., and Centerbridge Partners bought Extended Stay America through a bankruptcy auction for US$3.93 billion. After its successful reorganization, Extended Stay America emerged from bankruptcy in October 2010. A year after the bankruptcy, Blackstone was sued by creditors of Extended Stay America alleging that Blackstone "skimmed" US$2.1 billion off of the sale to Lightstone and knew that the amount of debt would have been for unsustainable for the hotel chain; Blackstone settled the lawsuit in June 2013 for US$10 million.

Relisting

In 2013, Blackstone filed for initial public offerings (IPO) for Extended Stay America and another hotel company it owned, Hilton Worldwide; a third, La Quinta Inns & Suites, IPO-ed in 2014.