Dealmaker: Host Hotels & Resorts Sells Westin New York Grand Central Hotel for $302M

Host Hotels & Resorts, Bethesda, Md., sold the Westin New York Grand Central hotel in Midtown Manhattan for $302 million.

Investment management firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, New York, purchased the 774-key asset. 

JLL Hotels & Hospitality, Chicago, advised Host Hotels & Resorts on the transaction. The Real Deal New York reported JLL secured $197 million in acquisition financing from Goldman Sachs, New York.

JLL Senior Managing Director Jeffrey Davis and CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado managed the sales transaction; JLL Managing Director Kevin Davis led the financing effort.

Host Hotels & Resorts President and CEO James Risoleo said the real estate investment trust is reducing its exposure to New York. “With the completion of this sale, we have sold three assets and the retail, signage and theater condo space at the New York Marriott Marquis for $1.1 billion,” he said.

Perez-Alvarado said private equity continues to demonstrate its appetite for lodging product, due to a strong economy, a desire to deploy capital and continued growth in leisure travel.

The Westin New York Grand Central is near Grand Central Terminal, the United Nations, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building and Bryant Park. The hotel includes 15,000 square feet of meeting and event space and an on-site restaurant.

“New York’s ongoing investment in infrastructure, such as East Midtown’s approved rezoning plan that will bring exciting new developments and further utilization of the area’s public space and transit, is a major factor in the market’s strength,” Davis said.