Rachel S.K. Bates

Partner

Chicago
rachel.bates@lw.com
+1.312.876.6541

PRACTICES

  • Private Equity
  • Private Equity Finance
  • Real Estate
  • Restructuring & Special Situations

INDUSTRIES

  • Healthcare & Life Sciences
  • Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure
  • REITs

BAR QUALIFICATIONS

  • Illinois

EDUCATION

  • JD, University of Tennessee College of Law, 2007
    summa cum laude
  • BA, University of South Carolina, 2003
    magna cum laude

PROFILE

Rachel Bates, Global Vice Chair of Latham's Real Estate Practice, advises clients on all aspects of their most complex and significant real estate transactions across a variety of asset classes, with a particular focus on the hospitality industry.

A nationally regarded real estate lawyer, Rachel serves a broad range of market participants, including private equity sponsors, developers, leading hospitality brands, family offices, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and institutional investors. She frequently serves as a go-to advisor to real estate owners, operators, and developers on every facet of complex transactions.

Rachel's practice includes:

  • Single asset and portfolio acquisitions and dispositions
  • Development projects, including public-private partnerships
  • Joint ventures and other preferred equity structured vehicles
  • Financings, including mortgage, mezzanine, construction, and bridge financings
  • Management, franchise, and development agreements
  • Acquisitions of distressed debt
  • Repositioning of distressed assets through recapitalization or negotiated workouts

A versatile practitioner, Rachel brings particular experience advising both owner and brand-side clients in the hospitality industry.

Rachel delivers business-minded counsel to clients, with a focus on developing thoughtful and creative solutions. She helps clients mitigate potential risks while achieving their strategic objectives.

Rachel also frequently advises clients on a pro bono basis. Her work includes child guardianship matters, U Visa cases, as well as affordable housing-related matters on behalf of the Chicago Community Loan Fund.

Rachel is a member of CREW Chicago, an organization for senior-level executive women in the Chicago real estate field. She previously served on Latham’s Women Enriching Business (WEB) Steering Committee.

EXPERIENCE

Rachel's experience includes:

  • A real estate investment fund in the acquisition of hotel operating company and fee interest of 200+ hotels together with franchise and management agreements
  • Joint venture acquisition of mezzanine debt, foreclosure of such debt and senior mortgage restructuring secured by hotel in Hawaii
  • Joint venture to develop a convention center hotel, mortgage financing, public/private financing, and ground lease
  • US$1 billion portfolio sale of three luxury hotels
  • Acquisition of lifestyle hotel management platform for major hotel brand
  • Acquisition through a forward purchase of a four property hotel portfolio in Key West, mortgage financing, refinancing and ultimate disposition of the portfolio six years later
  • Disposition of luxury hotels and negotiation of long term management agreements for major hotel brand
  • Sale of five-star urban hotel and contemporaneous management agreements for three additional hotels
  • Acquisition and financing of luxury hotels in San Francisco and New York
  • Leading real estate investment trust in connection with a merger with a non-traded REIT resulting in a combined US$7 billion public company
  • Ground lease with purchase option for a to be developed cancer center and medical campus
  • Joint venture to develop multi-family housing project along with mortgage financing
  • Restructuring mortgage and mezzanine debt and implementing debt-for-equity exchange for golf club operator
  • Joint venture to develop multi-family housing projects along with mortgage financing
  • Leading real estate investment trust owning US$3.2 billion of property in connection with its corporate restructuring and US$500 million initial public offering equity offering
  • National industrial developer in connection with the formation of a joint venture for the acquisition and development of a US$750 million industrial facility for the National Nuclear Security Administration
  • Joint venture for the development of a mixed-use office retail, residential, grocery project; along with senior mortgage financing and mezzanine financing
  • Sale of Wrightwood Capital’s investment platform to Ares Commercial Real Estate
  • Joint venture of a specialized unit of a National Bank with a hotel operator for a programmatic hotel development platform
  • Acquisition and financing of a portfolio properties leased to public utilities