LeClairRyan's Hospitality and Tourism Industry Team is a client-focused group of veteran attorneys, each possessing a depth of experience in a specific area, working collaboratively to promote businesses' best interests and bottom lines. We have extensive experience in all aspects of the industry due in part to our locations in two of the East Coast’s top tourist destinations—Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the country's unique "Colonial Capital," Williamsburg, Virginia.
We also boast proximity to the historical destinations of Jamestown and Yorktown, Virginia, and house an office in both Boston, Massachusetts, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Our team is flanked on the West Coast by our Los Angeles office, where the focus is less on the historical and more on the "hip." And of course, we have many clients in between.
Businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector face a myriad of legal issues. Our team reflects the industry it serves—it is one of depth and diversity of both talent and knowledge. Our distinctive areas of strength include:
- Real estate development, finance and sales
- Management, franchise and other collateral agreements
- Operations, facility management and staffing
- Food and beverages, including alcoholic beverage licensing and violation management
Real Estate Development, Finance and Sales
Several of our team members are knowledgeable of the real estate industry, possessing experience in land acquisition, financing, leasing and disposition. Several focus their practices heavily on the unique challenges that local zoning ordinances present to the entrant into a tourism market, while others are knowledgeable of specialty products including condominiums, fractionals, timeshares, common interest, and resort and lifestyle communities, as well as the customary hotel key.
In addition to traditional lending sources such as banks and insurance companies, we have experience in non-traditional and unusual financing arrangements in which recent economic crises have required members of the hospitality and tourism industry to engage, including community development authorities, tax increment financing, and other public-private partnership vehicles, franchisor financing, and system-participant investment groups.
Our team is mindful that many of the products our clients create come with additional regulatory schemes with which they must comply before they are able to enter the market, and we have the experience to successfully navigate such laws as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Interstate Land Sales Act, state timeshare and condominium acts, state and federal franchising laws, state and federal environmental laws, and state real estate salesperson laws. Whether the goal is to open one restaurant site or develop a 2,500-acre community development authority, our attorneys can provide the legal counsel required to open the doors open and bring the product to market. Some of the property types we have helped clients develop include:
- Golf courses
- Ski resorts
- Beach resorts
- Wine villages
- Motorsports themed communities
- Historically preserved properties
- Eco-tourism amenities
- Water parks
- Theme parks
- Spas
Management, Franchise and Other Collateral Agreements
All hospitality and tourism facilities require uncompromising management, whether provided by the owner, developer or a third-party manager. From the simplest of alcoholic beverage management agreements to complex resort management arrangements, our attorneys are skilled at representing both sides of the transaction.
Similarly, an operator's franchise agreement, whether for a lodging facility, restaurant or attraction, can be the one document that ultimately determines the operation's success and value. Most of our industry clients are parties to multiple agreements that govern their operation, and we represent them aptly in all aspects of the typical contractual arrangements.
Contractual agreements that we have developed include:
- Shared golf play agreement for a golf resort with lodging units under a flag, private members and resident homeowner members
- Shared maintenance and use agreement for a condominium regime with a common area boardwalk, lake, concert gazebo, and other amenities that were technically owned in fee by the local development authority
- Shared parking agreement for a public garage, managed by a third-party operator, to benefit, in part, members of a private ski club
Operations, Facility Management and Staffing
Similar challenges arise for our hospitality clients in the area of staffing, operations and facility management. We regularly advise and assist our industry clients on matters related to the following issues:
- Wage and hour requirements
- Immigration regulations
- Seasonal labor demands
- Employee housing requirements specific to the industry workforce
- Employer-employee conflicts involving discrimination, wrongful termination and harassment, among other labor and employment issues
In addition, we routinely call upon our CPA and former IRS-agent team members to negotiate with local, state and federal taxing authorities on meals, lodging, and sales and use tax disputes. Furthermore, our intellectual property and technology attorneys regularly assist our clients with social media, reservation security, cloud computing, proprietary applications, and a host of other current issues. Other team members concentrate their practices on properly insuring client assets, ensuring patrons' safety, and defending clients' against improper premises liability claims.
Food and Beverages
Many of our clients limit their businesses to serving food, and producing, distributing and selling alcoholic beverages. Key team members include individuals who are experienced in FDA matters, the manufacture and distribution of beer, wine, and spirits, and alcoholic beverage licensing and disciplinary matters. Our attorneys regularly appear before federal, state and local administrative bodies that have jurisdiction over these areas in matters of first impression and on appeal. Our dedicated litigators are supported by our team members when such matters bring our clients to the courtroom. We have offices in several heavy wine producing states, including California, Virginia and New York.
Representative engagements:
- Represented investment and development groups including several NASCAR drivers in the acquisition, planning, zoning, ISLA registration, state common interest registrations and private and public finance for a 2,500-acre motor-sports themed development in Western Virginia
- Represented a 3,500-door owner's association in the separation from the developer of a multi-course golf community and host to a major golf event upon the sale by the developer/resort and conference center operator, including the renegotiation of ingress and egress, shared cost agreements, amenity usage and private security
- Represented a religious organization owning 300 acres of land for over 200 years in the development of a mixed-use community including a hotel, senior apartments, commercial space, condominiums and single family homes
- Represented the second largest franchisee in a casual themed restaurant system in the negotiation of franchise agreements, area development agreements, and territory agreements
- Represented a hotel owner group in the negotiation of a management agreements for several hotel properties
- Represented replacement resort management company in obtaining a continuous operating agreement for the service of alcoholic beverages upon the termination of the existing management company
- Represented restaurant operator in major meals tax dispute with the Virginia Department of Taxation and achieved a zero dollar obligation result upon a claimed underpayment of over $300,000
- Represented large casual themed restaurant in obtaining liquor licenses in multiple jurisdictions, including specialized local permitting, civic league approval, religious organization approval, and public safety approval
- Represented restaurant owner in underage beverage service charge; involved having the charge dismissed and a clean record reinstated on grounds of the mishandling of evidence
- Represented manufacturer of beer in case of violation of distributorship laws before state regulatory agency