Sherwood Equities Sells Times Square Hotel for $165M
Times Square is springing back to life and the possibility of a tourism magnet in the form of a casino is attracting interested investors to the district’s hotel market.
Sherwood Equities is in contract to sell the hotel at 2 Times Square to a joint venture of Apollo Global Management and Newbond Holdings for $165 million, according to the Commercial Observer. The agreement for the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The 200,000-square-foot hotel has 317 rooms. Tucked into the north junction of Seventh Avenue and 48th Street, the Marriott-branded property is exposed to hundreds of thousands of daily visitors and overlooks the site of the famed New Year’s Eve ball drop.
Should the deal close at the agreed price, the transaction would break down to $825 per square foot or $520,000 per key. Six years ago, Sherwood scored a $232 million loan from German bank Helaba to refinance both 2 Times Square and another one of its properties in the district, 1600 Broadway. The financing for 2 Times Square made up a majority of the transaction.
Sherwood bought the land underneath the property in 1985 and developed the hotel five years later. The firm is retaining ownership of the property’s exterior signage, as well as retail component, which is leased to a host of brands including Olive Garden, Van Leeuwen’s and Max Brenner Chocolate.
Adam Spies and Adam Etra were among the Newmark team members advising Sherwood in the deal.
Two years ago, Jeffrey Katz’s Sherwood sold the retail space at 1600 Broadway to a joint venture led by Paramount Global for north of $190 million. The space is best known for housing M&M’s World.
Marc Rowan’s Apollo and Neil Luthra’s Newbond have become fast friends in the world of Times Square hospitality. The two firms partnered last year to purchase the Hilton Times Square for approximately $85 million — barely a third of what it last traded for in 2006.
— Holden Walter-Warner
