Algonquin Sale Signals Rebound for NY Hotel Market

NEW YORK CITY-Miller Global Fund IV, a year-old partnership under Denver-based Miller Global Properties LLC, has purchased the 12-story, 174-key Algonquin Hotel, located at 59 W. 44th St. Dallas-based Olympus Real Estate was the seller in the principal-to-principal transaction. Miller Global president Jim Miller tells GlobeSt.com that Downtown is currently a buyers market for hotels.

“This is a prime window to be acquiring property in New York,” says Miller. “We expect the property values to come back soon.” Miller says the group aims to increase the average daily rates within the hotel, which currently stand in the $200-$220 range. The value of the sale was not disclosed.

Destination Hotels & Resorts has been selected to manage the property. They will immediately begin renovations to upgrade rooms and install Internet lines in guest and meeting areas, an undertaking that Miller estimates to cost “a few million dollars.” A significant portion should be completed when peak hotel season hits New York later this summer, he says.

The management position marks another significant notch for Destination, which in the past three months has also landed management contracts for the 19-story, 190-room Nine Zero hotel in Boston and the Teton Mountain Lodge in Jackson Hole, WY.

“We are very encouraged by what we’ve seen that the New York hotel market is returning,” Allen Goodman, regional vice president of sales and marketing for Destination Hotels & Resorts tells GlobeSt.com. The Midtown landmark, most notably the site of a literary roundtable in the 1920s that included authors Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott and Franklin P. Adams, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in November of this year.

This is the first acquisition for Miller Global Fund IV, which aims to buy high-end office and hotel properties in the continental US. Miller Global Europe I, a similar undertaking for the European market, recently made its first purchase with The Sea Container House building, a landmark property in downtown London.

Since 1995, Miller Global has been developing, acquiring, operating and owning office buildings, hotels, mixed-use properties and real estate operating companies throughout the continental US and in Europe. Through Miller Global’s five real estate funds and various partnerships, the company portfolio spans 65 properties, comprising 7.5 million sf of office space and 685 hotel rooms, with an approximate value of $1.5 billion.