GERMANTOWN, TN— Equity Inns, a REIT, has acquired 19 AmeriSuites hotel leases from Prime Hospitality, which will continue to be managed by Prime. Neither party paid remuneration to convert the leases to management contracts. Equity Inns now has converted all of its 96 leases to management contracts as allowable under the REIT Modernization Act. Under the new agreement, effective immediately, Prime will guarantee Equity Inns a minimum return per hotel equal to the base rent previously paid to ENN by Prime. The length of the management contracts equals the length remaining on the original leases with comparable performance standards and with similar economics. Separately, Equity Inns has inked new management agreements for 12 properties previously operated by Interstate Hotels Corp. under one-year agreements, which expired December, 2001. Eleven of the properties will remain with Interstate on a month-to-month basis; the twelfth hotel was assigned to Waterford Hotel Group, LLC under a two-year contract.
