Starwood is close to selling 1 Hotel Central Park

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group is again trying to sell 1 Hotel Central Park, and this time, a buyer appears to be getting close to a deal.

Host Hotels & Resorts is nearing the purchase of the Midtown Manhattan hotel at 1414 Sixth Avenue, Bloomberg reported. The deal has yet to be finalized and could still collapse. It’s not clear how much Host would pay for the 229-key property.

Starwood did not respond to the publication’s request for comment, while Host declined comment.

Sternlicht purchased the property in 2011 for $72 million with plans to turn it into a hotel, which ultimately opened four years later. United Overseas Bank provided $125 million to refinance the property in 2015, but Starwood turned around and attempted to sell it for more than $1 million per room in 2016. No deal transpired.

In 2018, United Overseas returned with a $162.5 million loan to refinance the 18-story property.

This could prove to be an advantageous time to get in on the Manhattan hotel scene. Room rates are on the rise as supply is bogged down by the red tape preventing further hotel development in the city. Meanwhile, New York is cracking down on short-term rentals, leaving fewer lodging options for the roughly 60 million tourists who visit every year. 

Starwood and Host have a recent history of getting deals across the finish line. In Nashville a couple of months ago, Host acquired 1 Hotel Nashville and an Embassy Suites next door from an investor group led by Sternlicht’s firm in a $500 million deal.

Host also recently snagged the Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii from Blackstone for roughly $680 million.

Starwood is now dealing with a liquidity crunch at its real estate investment trust, which has led the firm to impose stricter withdrawal limits for investors. Last week, Sternlicht said that he expects the measure to be a temporary one.

— Holden Walter-Warner