James Preston, Senior Vice President

Professional History

Founder & Managing Partner, Roberts Marshall LLC, Boston, MA

Managing Director—Real Estate Group, Fieldstone Private Capital Group, New York City, NY

Founder & Managing Director, Preston, Campbell

Area Director of Development, ITT Sheraton, Boston, MA

Attorney—Corporate Law, Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, Boston, MA

Attorney—International Corporate Law, Coudert Freres, Paris, France

Attorney-Corporate Law, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York City, NY

Areas of Special Expertise

Over 17 years of experience in real estate financial advisory, with a specialty in hotels and in the origination of debt and equity placements for hospitality and other commercial real estate projects in Europe and Asia.

Acquisition and development of the full spectrum of hospitality products, and financing techniques and structures for them. Mr. Preston’s legal background and work in emerging markets have allowed him to develop a special expertise in measuring investment risk, and in the organization and management of the teams of inter-disciplinary advisors required for developing, financing and implementing these projects.

Working relationship with major private and multi-lateral financing sources involved in infrastructure finance in Europe, Central Asia and North Africa, and access to an array of current projects seeking funding in these markets. Broad international experience, with assignments and projects in the transitional economies of the former Eastern Bloc, in China, in Turkey, in Kazakhstan, in Southeastern Europe, and more recently in the EU and North Africa. 

Major Projects

In addition to responsibility as Area Director of Development for Sheraton’s participation in all new managed hotels in the Western United States from 1984 to 1992, major assignments have included:

• Mid-market Hotel Program, Central and Eastern Europe: raising debt and equity for a program of mid-market hotels to be managed by Global Hotels Development Group Poland under the Holiday Inns brand.

• Tourism Sector, Montenegro: Advising the Government of Montenegro on the privatization of its tourism sector, involving the restructuring and sale of three regionally based, vertically integrated conglomerates owning hotels, restaurants, transportation fleets and other tourist facilities.  Involving issues of land ownership and infrastructure, particularly access and utilities.

• Office and Hotel Development, Xiamen, China: engagement by a New York - based venture fund to raise debt and equity funding for a major mixed-use project in the southern port city of Xiamen.

• Hotel Acquisition Investment, Astana, Kazakhstan: engagement by a Turkish developer, to find a buyer for its share of the InterContinental Hotel in Astana

Education

Oxford University (New College), Oxford, U.K, M.A. in Jurisprudence

Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, B.A. in French Literature

Professional Memberships

Member of the Bar:

• the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

• the State of New York

•  the First District Federal Court of New York State