Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is in late-stage talks to sell the forthcoming Baccarat hotel for $200 million, or a record $2 million per room.
If the deal were to close, it would tie the sale of The Plaza Hotel in 2012 as the priciest ever for a U.S. hotel on a per-room basis, according to STR Analytics data cited by the Wall Street Journal. Starwood would hold onto the Baccarat brand and maintain the management contracts under the deal.
After almost 10 years in private equity, Sternlicht returned to the hotel operations business to run the 114-room hotel at 20 West 53rd Street. Starwood and Tribeca Associates jointly developed the Baccarat, which is expected to open in February. A penthouse there is asking $60 million.
Starwood plans to continue acquiring hotels for its private-equity funds and then sell them about three years later, the newspaper said. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer