Marriott International Inc. has sold the St. Regis New York for $310 million to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, offloading a historic property that served as the launching point for an indispensable cocktail and a preeminent luxury hotel brand.
The purchase gives Qatar Investment Authority another trophy asset to add to an expanding portfolio across the globe. The fund has been boosting its investments in the U.S., including purchasing stakes in properties in New York.
The St. Regis New York Hotel.
Photographer: Ben Hider/Getty Images
The St. Regis hotel, located on East 55th Street near Fifth Avenue, was opened by John Jacob Astor IV in 1904. The 18-story Beaux-Arts building contains more than 200 guest rooms and the King Cole Bar, a watering hole where the Bloody Mary is said to have been invented.
Room rates on Thursday night (10/31/19) ranged from $779 to more than $4,000 for a suite, according to Marriott’s website.
Marriott, the world’s largest lodging company, doesn’t own many hotels, preferring to earn fees for licensing brands and managing properties for real estate partners.
Marriott acquired the Manhattan property when it bought Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2016, a $13.6 billion transaction that reshaped the global hospitality industry. By then, the St. Regis name had been repurposed as a globe-spanning luxury brand with outposts in places like Shenzhen, China and Bora Bora, in French Polynesia.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based company recently disclosed its $206 million acquisition of the W New York Union Square, a move intended to jump-start the update of a beloved but faded brand.
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