Rosen buys the Paramount Hotel for $275M

Adding to a portfolio that includes the Seagram Building and Lever House, developer Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding has bought the Paramount Hotel for $275 million from Walton Street Capital and Highgate Holdings, according to the Wall Street Journal. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

RFR had an incentive to buy, the Journal said, taking advantage of a tax law by reinvesting proceeds from a recent sale to defer a capital-gains payment.

The 597-room hotel, situated at 235 West 46th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, was transformed in the 1980s by hotelier and then-owner Ian Schrager and designer Philippe Starck into a fashionable Manhattan nightspot. It underwent a $40 million renovation and received landmark status in 2009.

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The hotel faces stiff competition from large hotels around Times Square. It is currently offering rooms starting at $259 a night for a Saturday night stay, relatively cheap for a prime location.

Last month, it was reported that Rosen and his business partner Michael Fuchs were running into difficulties with some of their former partners. [WSJ]