Starwood Sells Two Luxury W Hotels in Manhattan

Manhattan Hotels For Sale

By Nadja Brandt

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. agreed to sell two of its W Hotels in Manhattan to St. Giles Hotels LLC, reducing the luxury brand’s current New York area locations by a third.

SOURCE: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-13/starwood-sells-two-luxury-w-hotels-in-manhattan-update1-.html

St. Giles, based in London, will take over operations of the W Court and the W Tuscany as of 11:59 p.m. New York time tomorrow, according to a notification on Starwood’s Web site. The hotels, both on 39th Street between Park and Lexington avenues, will no longer be affiliated with the W, White Plains, New York-based Starwood said in a separate statement.

The W brand -- started in New York City more than a decade ago

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“As part of our asset-light strategy, we are focusing on the higher growth part of our business and will continue to unlock real estate value,” K.C. Kavanagh, a Starwood spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail. She declined to disclose the sale price of the New York properties.

The remaining W Hotels in the New York area are in Times Square, Union Square and Midtown in Manhattan, along with one across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey. Starwood, the third-largest U.S. hotel chain, plans to open a W location in downtown Manhattan in June, according to its Web site.

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