The $380 million will be available for both acquisitions and refinancings, including both limited service and full service hotels. Summit's role is to present the lender with deals, based on the lender's underwriting standards.

Stueber says that the most remarkable aspects of the $380 million in funding is that CMBS will be available on hospitality assets and, "Non-recourse money is back, really, for the first time since early 2008." He estimates that 25% to 35% of the financing will go to hotel assets and the remainder to other asset classes.

"There's room for roughly 17 or 18 deals and that's it," Stueber says. Once that capital is used, the lender will securitize the pool and make a decision on whether the securitization was successful. "If it is, I expect that they will inject more capital into this type of financing again," Stueber says.

The lender will fund transactions on high quality assets starting at approximately $20 million in loan dollars with a minimum debt coverage ratio of 1.25 on an amortization of 25 or 30 years with a five-year or a 10-year term. Interest rates are projected in the low 7% range on five-year loans and the high 7% range for 10 years.

Stueber notes that, considering the $20 million minimum loan amount, the limited service properties with values high enough to qualify are probably primarily in major metro areas. The lender is not targeting any specific geographic markets in favor of others, but instead will look at each property on its own merits on a case-by-case basis, the Summit president says. These will be stabilized, cash-flowing properties with positive trailing 12-month performance numbers.

Despite the distress in the hotel sector, Stueber points out, there are properties there and in other sectors that are performing well. In the hotel sector, he adds, there are signs of stabilization in RevPAR. "If RevPAR begins to stabilize over the next quarter or two, you will see more activity," from lenders, he adds.

The new financings will be a bit of a departure for Summit in that they will include assets other than hotels. "Our focus has always been in finding money for our clients on the hospitality side," Stueber says. The firm has arranged loans for new construction, acquisition and refinancing of hotels from coast to coast for many years.

The lender wants to deploy the $380 million right away, Stueber says. "I think the transactions will come in very quickly," he says. "I don't think it will take much time at all, considering how quiet things have been out there."