French Firm Buys Tribeca Hilton Garden Inn For $69M

A French media and entertainment company has snapped up the Tribeca Hilton Garden Inn with plans to convert it into what it calls “the world’s first Art Newspaper House.”

The Generation Essentials Group, subsidiary of the publicly traded AMTD Digital, paid $69 million for the 151-key hotel at 39 Sixth Avenue, the company announced. The seller was Philadelphia-based Hersha Hospitality and KSL Capital Partners. Eastdil Secured advised the seller on the deal.

The buyer has already renamed the property on the corner of York Street to AMTD Idea Tribeca Hotel and announced plans to convert it to an “Art Newspaper House” — a concept the world has never before seen, per the company. It is unclear what that means, but AMTD owns several media and entertainment businesses, including The Art Newspaper, an online and print publication that covers the international art world. AMTD did not respond to a request for comment.

The hotel was developed in 2009 by Sam Chang’s McSam Hotel Group and Hersha acquired it that year in a complex transaction that included a cash payment of $4.8 million and the forgiveness of $19 million in development loans spread between two properties. KSL, a private equity firm that invests in travel and leisure businesses, acquired Hersha in 2023.

The sale marks another large-scale hospitality trade in a market finding its footing after years of uneven recovery. Tourism has roared back and revenues are healthy, but rising labor costs, high interest rates and climbing property taxes continue to squeeze profits.

Like the office sector, the hotel industry is navigating an uneven recovery. High-end, full-service properties are surging on strong leisure and group travel, while midscale and economy hotels continue to lag behind. Hotels saw a strong rebound in 2025. Revenue per available room in Manhattan – a key gauge of industry health – jumped 7.1 percent year over year, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, driven largely by luxury property growth. Average daily room rates rose 5.7 percent, while occupancy climbed 1.4 percent.

Both KSL and Eastdil declined to comment.