NEW YORK CITY-Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc is expanding its Manhattan portfolio with the 480-key Novotel Times Square. The UK-based hotel operator is paying $273.6 million to acquire the property from 226 West Fifty-Second Street LLC, a partnership led by a fund affiliated with Apollo Global Management, and Chartres Lodging Group.
“Times Square is one of the world's top tourist destinations and this beautifully refurbished property will undoubtedly increase our share of the international travel market in New York, one of our three key gateway cities,” says M&C chairman Kwek Leng Beng. He calls the Novotel Times Square deal “an important strategic investment” for his company, one that will “complement our existing Midtown and Downtown Manhattan hotels without adding significantly to central management costs.”
M&C says it expects to complete the acquisition in the second quarter. The deal comes two years to the day after the Apollo/Chartres partnership paid $94 million to acquire the Novotel from European lodging giant Accor SA, which developed it in the early 1980s.
Under terms of that sale, the new owners were obligated to undertake a $118-million renovation in 2013 of the 30-year-old hostelry located at 226 W. 52nd St. The 2012 sale also mandated that Accor stay on as manager, an arrangement that continues with the sale to M&C. The management agreement with Accor runs through 2038 and may be extended for three successive 10-year periods.
M&C's other Manhattan properties include the Millennium Broadway New York and the Premier Hotel New York, both near Times Square, and ONE UN New York, near United Nations Plaza.
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