UPDATED, 12:12 p.m., Feb. 17: Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group sold its remaining 49.9 percent stake in Central Park South’s Hilton Garden Inn to Morad Ghadamian, a Lenox Hill-based investor and carpet importer, The Real Deal has learned. The deal was struck just over a year after the 401-key hotel opened its doors, and values the property at $240 million.
Starwood and Joseph Moinian’s the Moinian Group co-developed the 34-story, 142,300-square-foot hotel at 233-239 West 54th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The Gene Kaufman-designed property opened in January 2014.
Moinian retains its minority interest of less than 25 percent, according to sources close to the deal, and an unidentified stakeholder continues to hold a small interest.
At the time of the deal last week, the owners secured a 10-year, fixed-rate loan of $200 million from Morgan Stanley, sources said. A JLL team led by Dustin Stolly and Kevin Davis represented Moinian in the deal. Moinian, Starwood, Stolly and Davis declined to comment.
The hotel is the largest Hilton Garden Inn in North America, according to Hilton. Empire Steakhouse operates out of a 4,650-square-foot space on the hotel’s ground floor.
A few blocks away, Starwood entered contract earlier this month to sell the Baccarat Hotel at 20 West 53rd Street to China-based Sunshine Insurance Group for $230 million, or a record $2 million per room, before the hotel even opened its doors.
“For Starwood, this is less strategic [than the Baccarat sale], just a financial investment,” said Sean Hennessey, CEO of hospitality consulting firm Lodging Advisors.
Morad Ghadamian, who controls the entity MG237 No. 2 LLC, declined to comment. He and his wife Sima paid $27.5 million in 2012 for a co-op at 810 Fifth Avenue that was once the home of Nelson Rockefeller. Morad’s son, Daniel Ghadamian, is a principal at real estate investment firm Capstone Equities.