Hotel AG Welcomes DJ Effler as Director of Capital Markets

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. May 28, 2014

ATLANTA - May 28, 2014 - Hotel Assets Group, LLC (Hotel AG), announced today that DJ Effler has joined Hotel AG as Director for the company's newly launched capital markets platform. DJ will continue his current role with Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC (Bellwether Enterprise) and add to it the role of Director at Hotel AG.

H. Keith Thompson, principal of Hotel AG, stated, "DJ comes from a very deep hospitality finance background that is second to none. His relationships with the CMBS markets, local lenders and insurance balance sheet lending are absolutely incredible. DJ could be the best hotel lending specialist in the country and we are pleased he has joined Hotel AG."

DJ Effler commented, "I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Hotel AG. The opportunity to align myself with a leading hospitality investment sales platform with the high quality reputation that Hotel AG has built in the marketplace was too good to pass up. I've been fortunate in my hospitality finance career to work with and around some very talented people as both a lender and an investor. I like to think that experience provides a unique perspective to my clients as we work together to structure the right debt solution for each specific investment opportunity. At the end of the day, this really is not a commodity business. Negotiating applications, assembling the proper team to work through the closing process, and staying involved in the servicing of the loan post closing are all incredibly important pieces to the deal. I think we do a really good job of covering all those bases as well as providing the best economics for the deal."

"I learned the business as a life company lender. I speak their language and have long-standing, deep relationships with many life company decision makers. We have a large servicing portfolio and exclusive correspondent relationships with many. Obviously, the majority of hotel debt deals getting done today are through banks and CMBS lenders and we love that avenue of execution, but life companies are coming back into the game. Why not work with a mortgage banker with a capital markets platform that not only is as well versed and plugged into the CMBS and bank market as anyone out there, but also has real access to life company capital? At the end of the day, we can open more doors. That's the truth," further commented DJ Effler.

DJ Effler has 12+ years of experience in commercial real estate investments in multiple capacities. He began his commercial real estate career at Nationwide Life Insurance in Columbus, Ohio, underwriting and originating first mortgage loans on all property types. While at Nationwide, DJ learned the institutional commercial real estate lending business at one of the most respected life insurance lenders in the industry. DJ also began his career in hotel lending at Nationwide, as his responsibilities included originating hotel loans for the company's balance sheet. DJ then joined Rockbridge Capital LLC, a leading private equity firm focused on providing debt and equity to the hospitality industry, where he served as a vice president of both their Investments Group and Capital Markets Group. In 2011, DJ joined Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC, a national, full service, commercial real estate firm that arranges commercial and multifamily real estate loans, services loan portfolios and provides asset and portfolio management. At Bellwether Enterprise DJ launched the firm's Hotel Finance Group, which focused primarily on seasoned owner/operators of Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Starwood, and Hyatt flagged hotels. DJ quickly established Bellwether Enterprise as a national leader in hotel finance solutions for their clients.

About Hotel AG

Hotel AG is a national hotel brokerage firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm has been involved in 1 hotel transaction every 5 days for the past 3.5 years and has sold or advised on 125 hotel transactions over that past 12 months. Today, Hotel AG has around 183 hotels on the market with a market cap value of $2.2 billion. The firm specializes in select service and full service hotels within the US and works with CMBS lenders, whole loan banks, REITs, public companies, investment funds and private investors. The firm has 15 national brokers and 20 partners and can be found online at www.hotelassetsgroup.com.

About Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC

Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC is a national, full-service commercial and multifamily mortgage banking company. As a subsidiary of Enterprise Community Investment, Inc., Bellwether Enterprise has production offices across the country and an integrated servicing platform based in Cleveland. With local market expertise, national lending relationships and financing structure experience, we provide clients with competitive, creative solutions for their financing needs. Bellwether Enterprise provides loans for a range of institutional investors including life insurance companies, pension funds, commercial banks and CMBS lenders and is a direct Special Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS®) lender, Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Housing lender and Program Plus®Seller Servicer, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) lender and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 538 Rural Development lender.