Ben Tschann

Practice Areas

Ben Tschann is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Real Estate practice and serves as co-lead of the firm’s Hospitality & Leisure group.

While Ben’s practice covers all real estate asset classes, his focus is in real estate assets with an operating business, including hotels and resorts, senior housing/assisted living, sports facilities, and other similar assets such as serviced residential/multifamily and student housing. His work covers structuring, negotiation, and documenting complex real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, debt financings, preferred equity and mezzanine financings, work-outs and restructurings, strategic affiliations and franchise agreements, and short-sales. Ben works with some of the largest institutional investors and real estate developers and sponsors, REITs, insurance companies, family offices/high net-worth individuals, and pension funds in the United States, including Apollo, AutoCamp, Baring, Batipart, Behring Capital, Castle Peak Holdings, DiamondRock Hospitality Company, HEI Hotels & Resorts, Jaybird Capital, KHP Capital, Mirae Asset Management, Newbond Holdings, Quadrum Global, and Rockwood Capital.

Ben has a detailed understanding of real estate operations and critical business functions that impact the ownership and operation of hotels and resorts, sports facilities, senior housing/assisted living, and other similar real estate investments that are integral to the underlying operating business.

He has negotiated dozens of hotel management agreements with HEI Hotels, Quadrum (Arlo)Trailborn, AutoCamp, and other hospitality operators, and has negotiated hundreds of hotel management agreements and franchise license agreements on behalf of hotel managers and owners. He is uniquely positioned to advise the key players in the hospitality and leisure eco-system given his work for both owners/investors and operators. He has worked on all types of hotels and resorts ranging from luxury resorts with branded residential to urban full service hotels to outdoor-oriented lodging facilities. In addition, he has handled numerous transactions involving labor unions and collective bargaining agreements, restaurant and bar operating agreements, and celebrity chef affiliations.

Ben has also handled various cross-border transactions, including the negotiations of hotel management agreements and franchise agreements for clients in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. In addition to his work overseas, he has worked with numerous foreign investors on structuring real estate investments in the United States, including handling complex tax structurings.

Ben has also handled various management agreements and operating leases common to the senior housing and assisted living space.

Personal

JD, University of Notre Dame 2004 (cum laude); BA, Creighton University 1999 (magna cum laude)