Chinese insurer Sunshine Insurance Group agreed to buy the Baccarat Hotel from Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for more than $230 million, setting a price record on a per-room basis.
The sale of the 114-room hotel at 20 West 53rd Street would tie or potentially exceed that of The Plaza Hotel in 2012 as the priciest ever for a U.S. hotel based on the number of rooms – at more than $2 million per room. The deal is the rare example of a hotel selling before it opens, the Wall Street Journal.
The Baccarat, which Starwood and Tribeca Associates jointly developed, is expected to open in the next month. Suites will rent for $18,000 per night. Starwood would continue to manage the property.
Eastdil Secured, which advised on the $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, represented Starwood in the deal.
Sunshine Insurance Group was founded in 2005 and has since expanded to include departments on asset management and life insurance. The firm agreed to acquire a Sheraton hotel in Sydney, Australia, for $380 million in November. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer