Aju Hotels & Resorts is the buyer in the recent sale of two Midtown hotels of the former Chesapeake Lodging Trust, property records show.
The buyer, a subsidiary of South Korean-based conglomerate Aju, picked up 52 West 36th Street for $85.5 million and 30 West 31st Street for $51.2 million. Combined, the properties have 307 rooms.
Park Hotels & Resorts announced in May that it was buying Chesapeake, a deal that included the sale of the Hyatt-branded properties. The merger closed in mid-September and was valued at around $2.5 billion, making Park the second-largest lodging real estate investment trust with 66 hotels.
Park did not immediately return a request for comment, and Aju could not be reached.
Chesapeake, which had 20 hotels when Park acquired it, bought 52 West 36th Street in 2013 for $77.2 million. The firm had owned the other Hyatt location, at 30 West 31st Street, since 2011, when Chesapeake purchased it for $52.2 million.
South Korean investors have been pouring funds into London real estate, but they are far from absent in New York: A Korean pension fund has a 27 percent stake in One Vanderbilt, SL Green’s under-construction skyscraper next to Grand Central Terminal. And Daishin Securities bought 400 Madison about for $194.5 million.