NEW YORK CITY—A contract has been signed by the Lotte Group of South Korea to acquire the New York Place Hotel from locally-based Northwood Investors for $805 million. 

The 55-story hotel at 455 Madison Ave. at 50th St. features 909 guestrooms. Hotel Lotte Co. will acquire and operate the storied hotel. Hodges Ward Elliott arranged the sale.

The New York Palace Hotel, located in Midtown Manhattan, is comprised of The Villard House, a 73,000-square-foot landmarked building fronting Madison Avenue which houses meeting space and a restaurant; the Hotel Tower, a 55-story building which houses 899 guestrooms, and Maloney & Porcelli, a 11,000-square-foot restaurant located on 50th Street between Madison and Park avenues.

Northwood acquired the New York Palace Hotel in May 2011 for approximately $400 million.

"Hotel Lotte is a company that has been actively entering markets abroad. We have continuously been looking for fitting M&A opportunities and we have found one in New York with symbolic significance," a Lotte Group spokeswoman tells Reuters.

The property's roots date back to 1882 when financier Henry Villard, commissioned McKim, Mead & White, the architectural firm spearheaded by Stanford White, to create The Villard Mansion. In the mid 1970s, the Archdiocese of New York, owners of the land, cleared the way for hotel development. In 1980 the hotel opened as The Helmsley Palace.

In 1993, the hotel changed ownership and its name to the New York Palace Hotel and underwent a comprehensive multi-million dollar restoration and refurbishment program.