Pinnacle is a nationally recognized real estate investment and development firm that develops and funds opportunistic ground-up, repositioning and acquisition transactions in the United States and internationally.
The complaint alleges and the evidence will show that Pinnacle conceived, analyzed and promoted the Morgans' Mondrian hotel brand as the best suited brand to maximize the value of a prospective hotel and commercial development at the highly desirable intersection of State, Rush and Cedar Streets in Chicago owned by M Dev. Pinnacle further exerted its financial and human capital in order to facilitate and ensure Morgans attainment of the location by actively diverting another already identified hotel competitor. Additionally, in a separate joint venture transaction named Cosmopolitan Square located in San Diego (owned by the Simplon Corporation "Simplon") Pinnacle introduced a premier site located in the highly sought after “Gas Lamp” district.
Pinnacle had an understanding with Morgans regarding its entitlement to fees, capital participation and ownership regarding the Chicago location. Thereafter Morgans colluded with M Dev to circumvent and exclude Pinnacle.
Additionally, Pinnacle had a written agreement in place with Simplon regarding its entitlement to fees, capital participation and ownership regarding the San Diego location. Subsequently, Morgans again colluded with Simplon to circumvent and exclude Pinnacle from the San Diego project.
Pinnacle routinely identifies, enhances and secures proprietary; opportunistic transactions such as the two aforementioned developments outlined above for investment and development purposes. Pinnacle achieves this consistency of procuring and executing “high-radar” projects in an “off-market” manner as a result of its unique combination of financial and network resources with its development expertise. This ability delivers tremendous value to its existing and prospective investors and development partners.
Based on publicly available company announcements both Chicago and San Diego were two cities from a short list of destinations that Morgans had earmarked for its short-term growth strategy. Based on these reports, Pinnacle delivered sites that account for approximately 33% of Morgans expansion plans. Beyond this, Pinnacle provided value by helping to facilitate Morgans’ execution of its “light asset” business model. Pinnacle’s intention was merely to invest alongside Morgans’ on an equal basis while fostering positive business relationship.
Pinnacle
36 WEST RANDOLPH•SUITE 500 CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60601 TEL•312 442 9077 FAX•312 442 9078 www.pinnacleinvestmentgroupllc.com
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