Watermark sells Garment District hotel for 20% off 2014 price

Watermark Capital is selling its interest in another Midtown hotel for less than it paid for it.

The Chicago investment firm and its Watermark Lodging Trust sold the leasehold interest in the 224-key Courtyard by Marriott at 307 West 37th Street, PincusCo first reported. Barings, the investment arm of Massachusetts-based MassMutual, bought the interest, which is valued at $73.7 million, records show. The property’s fee owner is Stonebridge Companies.

Two years ago, Rhode Island-based Magna Hospitality bought a $52 million loan on the property from Barings. It’s not clear whether Magna is involved in this transaction.

Barings’ purchase of the 103,000-square-foot property works out to $716 a square foot. The ground lease runs through 2044.

The Real Deal reached out to Watermark and Barings for comment.

Watermark bought the leasehold in 2014 for $95 million, or $21 million more than it sold for this week. In June, the firm sold the 226-key Holiday Inn in Chelsea to Two Kings Real Estate for $80.3 million, 30 percent less than the $113 million it paid for the property in 2013; the seller at that time was none other than Magna.

The deals demonstrate the weary outlook for the city’s hospitality industry, which isn’t expected to return to pre-pandemic operating levels until at least 2024.

The starkest example came in the spring, when MCR Investors purchased the Times Square Sheraton from Host Hotels & Resorts for $323 million. It was the city’s largest hotel deal in two years, but the sale represented a $415 million haircut on what Host paid for the property in 2006.

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— Holden Walter-Warner