Doubletree Metropolitan trades for $335M

Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson’s development company has picked up its third New York City hotel in three years with the purchase of the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel in Midtown for $335 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 755-room, Morris Lapidus-designed property, originally built as the Summit hotel by the Tisch family in 1961, last traded for $110.5 million in 2003. The seller group, which consists of Highgate Holdings, Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Rockwood Capital, had put $35 million into renovations since then. Highgate will stay on as manager of the hotel, at 569 Lexington Avenue. Johnson’s RLJ Development, which also owns the Hilton Garden Inn and the Fashion 26 Hotel, put down $135 million in cash and took out a new $200 million mortgage as part of the deal. [WSJ]