Making Moves: What Billionaire Barry Sternlicht Has Bought And Sold In The Last 24 Months
As turmoil from stock selloffs and crude oil's collapse has investors running for the exits—not to mention everyone predicting the next recession—Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital hasn't tucked its head in the sand just yet. The past couple of years have seen serious moves from the real estate giant.
As part of our ongoing series on what the biggest in the business are up to, here's a breakdown of what Barry has bought and sold over the last two years.
Equity Residential Deal
Price: $5.4B
Size: 23,000 units
Seller: Equity Residential
In a clash of titans, Sam Zell passed this massive portfolio to Barry as part of his "Zelloff" in prep for what he thinks (and many agree) is a coming recession. If a recession does come to pass, it will be eerily reminiscent of Zell's sale of 540 prime office buildings to Blackstone just before the 2008 recession.
Baccarat Hotel
Price: $230M
Size: 114 hotel rooms
Buyer: Sunshine Insurance Group
The Chinese Sunshine Insurance Group snatched up this hotel in 2015 from Starwood, tying records with its $2M/room price tag. The massive Chinese trophy buy was one of many in recent years, the biggest, of course, being Anbang Insurance Group's $2B Waldorf Astoria purchase.
North Rockville Medical Office
Price: $11M
Size: 77k SF
Buyer: Raith Capital Partners
NYC private equity firm Raith Capital made its first DC purchase when it bought this medical office for Starwood subsidiary LNR. CBRE senior VP Michael Blunt led the brokerage team, which pushed the deal through last December.
Duke Realty Office Purchase
Price: $1.12B
Size: 6.9M SF
Seller: Duke Realty
Starwood bought this massive suburban office portfolio in January 2015 as part of a JV with Vanderbilt Partners and Trinity Capital Advisors. Duke's (CEO Dennis Oklak pictured) 62 building sale included properties in Nashville, Raleigh, South Florida and St. Louis.
Hilton Garden Inn
Price: About $120M
Size: 401 hotel rooms
Buyer: Morad Ghadamian
Sternlicht sold Starwood's 49.9% stake in the Hilton Garden in February of last year, just a year after the property opened its doors. Starwood co-developed the 142k SF hotel with the Moinian Group, which still held a 25% stake at the time of Starwood's sale.
Elm Park Campus
Price: $209M
Size: 750k SF
Seller: Duff & Phelps
Starwood acquired this property in January, and in February announced plans to partner with European developer Chartered Land to get to work on the "Pioneer Building," an eight-story, 174k SF office building for the front of the campus. The campus won't be all work—plans include 332 multifamily units along with eight houses.
The Promenade Bolingbrook
Price: $80M
Size: 628k SF
Seller: Forest City Enterprises
Forest City sold this shopping center for a big loss to Starwood Capital in spring 2014, after seven years of trouble finding tenants for the complex. Forest City made the mistake of opening the retail property as the market was peaking, just before the downturn.
Interhotel Sale
Price: $785M
Size: 10 hotels
Buyer: N/A
Barry hasn't found a buyer for this German hotel chain yet, but Starwood and Brookfield announced plans in February to partner and say "Auf Wiedersehen" to the 10 hotels. The owners have hired JLL and Eastdil Secured to advise on the sale, as sales of European hotels hit a record high of 23B euros last year—up 79% from the year before.
