CHINA TOPIX

11/02/2024 01:34:21 pm

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Chinese Firm to Buy New York's Baccarat Hotel for US$230 Million

Downtown Manhattan

A night-time view of Downtown Manhattan from the observation level of the Empire State Building in the Manhattan borough of New York REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Chinese insurers' foray into New York's property sector is in full gear as another Chinese firm announced plans to purchase New York's Baccarat Hotel for a record price of US $230 million, or about US $2 million per room.

Sunshine Insurance Group, one of China's Top 500 Enterprises and Top 100 Enterprises of Service Industries, is reportedly planning to buy the Manhattan property, which is scheduled to open for business in March yet.

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The Baccarat Hotel has not checked in its first hotel guest yet but the property will soon be considered as one of the most highly-valued hotel in the United States if the acquisition by Sunshine Insurance pushes through.

The more than US $2 million per room price tag of Baccarat Hotel will set a new record price for a hotel, a Chinese news portal reported. The per-room tag is based on the US $230 million purchase price for the 114-room hotel.

The hotel, jointly built by US real estate developers Starwood Capital Group and Tribeca Associates, also features super-deluxe suites that will cost about US $18,000 per night, targeting high-end guests, including the wealthy Chinese tourists.

The valuation, according to sources, surpassed the previous record set by the New York landmark Plaza Hotel that was sold in 2012 to India's Sahara Group for US $2.04 million a room.

It will not be a first for Sunshine Insurance to invest millions of dollars in a hotel. In November 2014, the company paid a record US $463 million to purchase Sydney's Sheraton on the Park hotel, the company's first in Australia.

The 557-room hotel fronting Hyde Park attracted suitors from Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East and mainland China, said selling agent Craig Collins chief executive officer of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Australasia.

The sale is a key marker for Chinese investment in Australia as it represents the first large acquisition of a commercial property by an insurance group after rules for offshore investing were relaxed.

Chinese insurers have been investing in the property market of the US. Last year, China's Anbang Insurance Group Co paid US $1.95 billion to acquire the famed Waldorf-Astoria on New York's Park Avenue from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

China property investor Dalian Wanda Group Co also last year put $900 million toward a Chicago skyscraper with a luxury hotel. Chinese investors also have bought hotels in Sydney, Washington and Los Angeles in the past year.

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