The sale of a 75% interest in luxury Manhattan hotel Mandarin Oriental, New York to billionaire Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries has been completed, JLL announced.
The 244-room premium luxury hotel, located on floors 35 to 54 of the Deutsche Bank Center in Columbus Circle, originally opened in 2003 and is located directly adjacent to Central Park and Columbus Circle. The hotel includes the MO Lounge overlooking the Manhattan skyline, more than 9,000 square feet of meeting space, one of three Forbes Five-Star spas in Manhattan and a fitness center with an indoor 75-foot lap pool overlooking the Hudson River.
The hotel reportedly had revenues of $115 million in 2018, $113 million in 2019 and $15 million in 2020.
Ambani announced in January 2022 that RIL’s division, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd., had entered into an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in the luxury hotel from Cayman Islands-based Columbus Centre Corp., which is an indirect owner of a 73.37% stake in Mandarin Oriental, for an equity consideration of around $98.15 million.
The acquisition of Mandarin Oriental is part of RIL’s plan to grow its hospitality footprint. This is RIL’s second landmark hotel acquisition, following the $79 million purchase of the 300-acre Stoke Park Ltd., a luxury hotel and country club in Buckinghamshire, U.K.
RIL has investments in EIH (Oberoi Hotels) and is also developing a convention center, hotel and managed residences in Mumbai.
JLL represented the sellers in the sale of their ownership stake. The JLL Hotels & Hospitality team representing the sellers was led by Gilda Perez-Alvarado, global CEO; Jeffrey Davis, senior managing director and head of U.S. Investment Sales; and Stephany Chen, executive vice president.
“We are seeing a rise in luxury hotel transaction volume as investors gravitate towards must-have, irreplaceable trophy assets, with New York leading the way in terms of cross-border investments into the U.S.,” said Perez-Alvarado.
“Globally, luxury hotel transaction volume surpassed $10 billion in both 2021 and 2022 for the first time since 2015, underpinned by record-high pricing and attractive yields. New York led all urban markets in Q1 2023 luxury transaction volume underpinned by strong fundamental performance,” said Davis. “Additionally, New York luxury RevPAR reached its highest Q1 level in the market’s history as the market continues to exceed prior ADR thresholds.”