Balazs courting new investors for Meatpacking’s Standard Hotel

Boutique hotelier André Balazs is looking to new investors to help him expand the trendy Standard Hotel, the New York Post reported. 

“We are very aggressively looking at other properties and are talking to both a circle of US and foreign investors, everything from sovereign funds to more conventional private equity,” Balazs told the Post. He added that he had had preliminary discussions with three brokerages, but nothing was on paper yet.

A new investor, Balazs told the Post, would likely be one looking to invest in other branches of the Standard. The iconic Meatpacking District hotel carries a cachet with the New York City nightlife crowd due to its chic restaurants and bars such as the Standard Biergarten, the Standard Grill and the celebrity haunt the Boom Boom Room.

Dune Capital Management and Greenfield Partners, the two majority investors in the Standard, are considering a sale of their majority stake in hotel, in a deal that could be worth $300 million. Balazs told the Post he hoped a sale would fetch even more than that, and if a deal were to be made, it would be “the next year, year and a half.” [NYP]  –Hiten Samtani