Waldorf Astoria Hotel (Photo : Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
New York's Waldorf Astoria, a five-star hotel located on 301 Park Avenue, has been bought for a price of about $2 billion, making it the most expensive hotel ever sold.
The luxury hotel, previously owned by the Hilton Group, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark that has 1,415 guest rooms and suites. Architects Schultze and Weaver designed the present building, of which construction was completed in 1931. One of its prized attractions is Cole Porter's piano, displayed in the hotel lobby.
Anbang Insurance Group, the new owner of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, has been an expected suitor of the hotel. Before the sale succeeded, Hilton Group made a deal with Anbang to permit it to manage the hotel for another century. With both agreeing to restore the hotel to its "historic grandeur," Anbang sealed the deal at $1.95 billion (£1.24 billion), now the largest U.S. real-estate acquisition awarded to a Chinese buyer.
Established in 2004, Anbang Insurance Group is a private investment conglomerate with seven subsidiaries. Just a decade post-establishment, Anbang already had approximately $114 billion in assets and still growing. Its spike in growth apparently is owed to its acquisition of 30 percent stake of Chengdu Rural and Commercial Bank in 2011. In just three years, bank assets have grown thrice as much.
Chinese businessmen have been making high-profile purchases in the U.S in the past years. Soho China co-founder Zhang Xin, alongside a group, paid $1.4 billion in 2013 for the 40 percent of shares in the Manhattan General Motors Building.
Ping An Insurance Group also acquired the headquarters building of Lloyd's, a prominent insurance company in London, at $388 million. Then, there is Fosun International that bought One Chase Manhattan Plaza for $725 million.
Lastly, Shanghai-based Greenland Group signed alongside Forest City to form a joint collaboration for the $5 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, with Greenland obtaining 70 percent of the shares.
