Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group has been reaching out to investors with high hopes of selling the company’s upcoming flagship Baccarat Hotel for around what would be a record-setting $2 million for each of its 114 elegant rooms and suites, The Post has learned.
The residences above it, which would not be part of any hotel sale, are being sold with asking prices that are topped by a $60 million penthouse.
Starwood has been quietly offering to sell the newly developed hotel portion of the Baccarat Hotel & Residencesat 20 W. 53rd Street — across from MoMa, several industry sources told The Post.
Starwood would retain management of the hotel through its affiliated SH Group.
Such a sale at up to $228 million would allow the company to make money on the trophy hotel — filled with more than 12,000 Baccarat items — even before it opens later this year, plus possibly establish the new brand with a record-setting deal and, perhaps, bring in the buyer as a strategic partner to help grow Baccarat around the world.
At the least, a sale would give Starwood fresh capital to redeploy to develop new projects while keeping its hotel flags flying.
“That would not surprise me,” said Daniel Lesser of LW Hospitality Advisors. “There is so much yield-focused capital from all over the world looking at hotel opportunities and this is a great time to be a seller or a buyer as we are at an incredible sweet spot.”
Those with knowledge of the situation say buyers in that arena include ultrahigh net worth individuals from Russia, China and the Middle East; sovereign funds; and more traditional investment entities whose investors may also include those kinds of individuals.
“There is a global market for trophy hotels in Manhattan,” explained Paul Stern, a city-based hotel advisor. “It’s very wide even if not very deep.”
The brand was conceived by Sternlicht to create “flawless” service, just as the crystal company has been known for its flawless designs.
The hotel’s 114 keys include 26 suites. It is scheduled to open to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the French brand that has a pact with Starwood that includes selling its designs in lobby shops.
Sternlicht is also taking offers on the two new ecologically focused 1 Hotel & Homes that are also yet to open, sources said. These include the 1 Hotel Central Park in the architecturally distinct 1414 Sixth Ave. with 229 rooms and suites and a large green façade, and the 1 Hotel & Pierhouse Brooklyn Bridge Park that is a 10-story, 193-key hotel by the East River in Brooklyn.
Starwood’s partner in the Baccarat project is Tribeca Associates. An executive there declined to comment on any possible sale other than to note that sales of the 61 residences over 46 floors are under way.
The residences have access to a spa, fitness and aqua center.
According to Streeteasy, 34 residences are in contract including two at $20.25 million with another 13 being marketed that include the $60 million penthouse.
The city previously set hotel records in 2007 with a partial interest sale of the Mandarin Oriental that revalued it at $1.3 million per key. But the new Park Hyatt will pay $1.8 million to Extell Development when it opens at the base of the residences at One57 opposite Carnegie Hall this summer. The sale of the Standard Hotel over the High Line in the Meatpacking District, when it closes this summer, is expected to be cut at $1.2 million per key.
Although the city’s hotel market came to a shuddering halt in 2008 when occupancy rate were in the low to mid-70s and room rates fell, it has recovered nicely as tourism and business travelers brought in 54 million people last year and occupancy rates have been in the high-80s.
Calls and emails to SH Group, Sternlicht and Starwood reps were not returned by press time.