Westbrook close to buying the W Union Sq. hotel for $168M

Westbrook Partners is close to signing a hard contract to acquire the W Union Square hotel for $168 million, sources told The Real Deal.

The Midtown-based real estate investment firm is expected to sign a contract for the 20-story, 270-key hotel at 201 Park Avenue South in the next week or two, sources said.

Host Hotels & Resorts, a Maryland-based real estate investment trust, put the hotel on the market in 2016. The Beaux-Arts hotel was built in 1911 and renovated as a W in 2000. Host Hotels paid $185.3 million for the property in 2010.

The sale, if it closes, would mark the first deal since an Eastdil Secured hotel investment-sales team led by Larry Wolfe left for Newmark Knight Frank. Wolfe, Mark Schoenholtz and Michele Mahl, all formerly of Eastdil, are brokering the deal.

The price per key would come out to about $620,000. At roughly $17 million below its last sales price in 2010, the deal would qualify as a loss.

The brokers declined to comment, and Westbrook, Highgate and Host Hotels could not be reached.

The 205,000-square-foot property would be the latest hotel to lose its W Hotels flag under new ownership. Capstone Equities and Highgate recently closed on the $190 million purchase of the W on Lexington Avenue, which they renamed the Maxwell. Host Hotels was also the seller of that hotel.

The city’s other W hotels are located in Times Square, at 1567 Broadway, and Downtown, at 8 Albany Street.

Highgate, which has partnered with Westbrook on hotel deals in the past, is in talks to serve as the manager of the property, sources said.

Westbrook, led by Paul Kazilionis, took a stake in HFZ Capital Group’s condominium conversion at the Belnord in March.