Luxury Hotels Close 2025 in Full Stride

If you’ve been tracking deal flow in the final stretch of the year, it’s hard not to miss that high-end hotels are one of the few places where buyers still seem willing to pick up the phone. While commercial real estate navigates a slip in deal volume and waits for clearer signals, luxury hospitality isn’t showing signs of slowing down.

Highgate, Gencom and Argent’s $230 million purchase of the InterContinental Times Square hit the wire this week as groups rush to get paper signed before the holidays thin out the room. It also landed just as the Fed nudged rates down another quarter point. The cut isn’t adjusting anyone’s underwriting, but it does offer a touch more comfort heading into 2026. And while plenty of sectors are slogging through choppy volume and wide bid-ask spreads, hotels have stayed active. October’s national sales data even showed the sector gaining a bit of ground while others cooled, helped along by a run of big New York trades.

Some of those deals have pushed pricing into rare territory. Kam Sang’s $250 million acquisition of the Edition Clocktower, which is the only hotel sale that appears to top the InterContinental, cleared more than $800,000 a key. Down in Soho, Cain’s roughly $175 million Dominick purchase back in July looks more like a repositioning play, the kind of buy that surfaces when an owner finally accepts that waiting for perfect timing isn’t getting them anywhere.

The activity hasn’t been confined to the trophy side. MCM’s $490 million four-hotel sale shows institutional buyers still like the Manhattan select-service profile, even as the Safe Hotels Act reshapes the economics for nonunion assets. And on the lifestyle end, MML’s $92 million purchase of Nine Orchard in August underscores that a well-run boutique can still command attention, even in a cooler market.

Beyond New York, a handful of luxury pockets are showing movement heading into the new year. In San Francisco, Blackstone picked up the Four Seasons for about $130 million, a discounted price that fits with the city’s slow but improving fundamentals. Chicago posted a record summer with room nights and hotel revenue surpassing 2019 levels, buoyed by a heavy slate of regional tourism and marquee events. And in Malibu, Chrome Hearts’ nearly $2 million-a-key acquisition of the Surfrider stands out as one of California’s priciest boutique trades in a year when most LA-area hotels struggled to change hands. If this latest rate cut pulls any sidelined capital back into the mix, these are the types of markets that could draw early attention in 2026.

All this is happening while new supply tightens nationally. CoStar’s latest count shows U.S. hotel rooms under construction at a 10-year low. Between building costs, materials, tariffs and financing, ground-up just isn’t penciling for most developers. Owners across the country are delaying or pausing projects, and more of the sector’s growth talk now centers on conversions and branding pivots rather than new builds.

That backdrop is especially relevant in New York, where the room count has meaningfully contracted over the last several years. Thousands of rooms have come offline, including many tied up in emergency shelters that likely won’t return to the traditional hotel pipeline. With occupancy inching back toward pre-pandemic levels, existing assets become more valuable simply because there’s less of it.

So while office towers continue trading at steep discounts and other asset classes grind through slow negotiations, New York’s hotel deals keep getting done as 2025 winds down.

There was plenty of other real estate news this week. Mark Nussbaum released a list of people who allegedly owe him money, the Fed cut interest rates and the iconic “Friends” building traded hands for a nice profit.

Mark Nussbaum names names in new filings

Indicted attorney Mark Nussbaum disclosed a detailed list of debtors and creditors in new filings. The filings showed that more than $300 million in missing escrow funds were tied to transfers to the late investor Mendel Steiner. Among the names on the list of people who allegedly owe Nussbaum money were Boruch Drillman ($4.7 million), Eli Puretz ($4.1 million), Shaya Prager ($1.1 million) and Yanky Tauber ($1.5 million).

Jeff Sutton flips “Friends” building for $33M

Jeff Sutton has flipped the famed “Friends” building in the West Village, unloading 90 Bedford Street for $32.7 million just a year after buying it for $18.25 million. The off-market deal, brokered by Baseline Real Estate Advisors’ Michael Sherman, delivers Sutton a roughly 79 percent profit after a round of renovations that brought the 21 apartments to full occupancy.

Three-peat: Fed cuts interest rates by another quarter-point

True to predictions, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point for the third time in three months. The Wednesday vote executed on one of three cuts the central bank previously signaled would come in 2025. In its September meeting, central bank officials hinted at more interest rate cuts before the end of the year.

David Werner buying One Dag Hammarskjöld for half off

David Werner is set to buy One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza for $270 million, a major discount that slices the tower’s 2019 valuation nearly in half. Rockpoint Group paid $566 million for the 50-story Midtown East office building six years ago, and the deal adds to Werner’s growing list of bargain office pickups amid Manhattan’s ongoing price reset.

“You’d be an idiot not to”: Multifamily owners tap Live Local tax breaks

South Florida apartment developers and landlords seized on the Live Local Act, a state law that incentivizes landlords to include workforce units at their buildings. Although much of the industry buzz has been over the law’s main perk for larger projects, its less touted bonus –– property tax breaks –– is already reshaping the multifamily market.

COPA and then some: City Council advances controversial housing bills ahead of final meeting

City Council members have several housing-related bills on their desks, including a new version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, and measures that some groups estimate will drive up the cost of city-funded housing by millions of dollars. Council members worked to finalize these bills on Wednesday to ensure they could be voted on at their final meeting of the year.

Developers’ pick Eileen Higgins is Miami’s next mayor

Eileen Higgins will be the next mayor of Miami, becoming the city’s first female mayor and first Democrat in nearly 30 years after a race where real estate’s heavyweights overwhelmingly backed her. Higgins clinched the decisive win with a 59-41 margin over former city manager Emilio Gonzalez in the mayoral runoff after she led the initial 13-candidate field.

Turnbridge closes on unfinished Coachella Valley resort for $65M

Turnbridge Equities purchased the SilverRock Resort development in La Quinta out of bankruptcy for $65 million, a steep discount compared to prior debt and value estimates. Turnbridge is planning to develop a luxury hotel, branded condominiums and estates, with phase one of the development is estimated to cost $735 million.

John Novak strikes deal to buy southern portion of Lincoln Yards

John Novak is rapidly ascending the ranks of Chicago developers by striking a deal to buy the troubled southern portion of Lincoln Yards from JP Morgan Asset Management and Sterling Bay, following the sellers’ failure to bring a massive commercial real estate plan to fruition.