Sternlicht was able to raise $20 million he used to purchase loans from the Resolution Trust Corporation, created by the federal government to hold the real estate assets left over from the savings-and-loan crisis.
In 1991, Sternlicht launched Starwood Capital Group. His goal was to buy up multi-family apartment buildings that were being auctioned off in the government’s bailout of the savings and loan crisis.[9]
In 1993, Sternlicht sold the portfolio to real estate magnate Sam Zell for more than 20 percent of Zell’s Equity Residential Properties Trust. When Zell took the company public that year, Starwood saw more than a 100 percent return. Sternlicht later began to purchase hotel sites, focusing on combining his passions of architecture and real estate finance.