Dajia Insurance Group, a Chinese state-owned company, plans to put the historic Manhattan building up for sale, the Wall Street Journal reports. reported. Eastdil Secured will be responsible for marketing the property when it is likely to be put up for sale next month and is expected to ask at least $1 billion.
The entire Park Avenue property recently underwent a lengthy eight-year redevelopment. The renovation reduced the hotel portion of the property to 375 rooms, while also creating a 372-unit condominium offering; those units would still be sold separately, although the sale of the property would also include adjacent restaurants and shops.
About a year ago, the Waldorf Astoria closed its first condo closings since the development began in 2017.
That redevelopment was disrupted a year later when the Chinese government seized Anbang Insurance Group, the project’s original developer, as part of a crackdown on companies with large foreign spenders. Months later, Anbang CEO Wu Xiaohui was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Angbang had originally purchased the building in 2015 for $1.95 billion.
The hotel was eventually transferred to Dajia US, the US subsidiary of an entity set up by the Chinese government, and sales began in early March 2020 – days before the physical sales gallery closed due to Covid.
Two years later, the CEO of Dajia US left the project due to pandemic-related cost overruns and project delays, as well as difficulties in renovating the landmark building. At the time, sources familiar with the development predicted that work would not be completed until late 2023 at the earliest. It took another two years.
The construction overruns cost the project a total of more than $4 billion. While the sellers are looking for at least $1 billion, they don’t expect to be able to recoup all the costs of the redevelopment, especially given the small number of buyers who could fetch ten figures for the site.
— Holden Walter Warner
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