NEW YORK HOTEL BUSINESS. has learned that Ian Schrager Hotels (ISH) stands to make a $35-million profit on the sale of the 306-room Barbizon Hotel on the upper East Side here to Philadelphia-based Berwind Group.
Ian Schrager, founder and CEO of ISH, purchased the hotel in 1998 as part of a group of assets for $177 million. He recently announced plans to sell the property alone for $100 million.
We never had plans to keep the hotel because it had been improved by its former owners and didn t fit in with our core assets we didn t have the room or the flexibility to do our magic on it. When the opportunity came, we sold it for the price we wanted, said Schrager.
A Berwind spokesperson declined to comment on the proposed purchase of the Barbizon Hotel and said that the company did not wish to comment on future plans for the hotel including whether it will fly the Melrose flag.
However, the purchase fits in with Berwind s previously reported strategy to grow its Melrose brand with high-end hotels in urban locations in the U.S. Its top five target markets were reported earlier as: New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. (3/12/01) Kelly Wayne