Crain’s New York Business: California private equity firm buys LaGuardia Airport Marriott
By Eddie Small
January 22, 2021
A California-based private equity firm has purchased the LaGuardia Airport Marriott for between $100 million and $200 million, the firm said on Friday.
ASAP Holdings bought the 443-key property from Rubicon Companies. A JLL team of KC Patel, Kevin Davis and Nikhil Chuchra represented Rubicon Companies in the deal.
The hotel, based at 102-05 Ditmars Blvd., spans 224,620 square feet with amenities that include the Ditmars Bar and Grill, and it underwent $30 million in renovations in 2018, according to JLL. LaGuardia Airport itself is also undergoing $8 billion worth of renovations, which ASAP CEO Frank Yuan said was key to his company’s interest in the hotel.
“We’re betting on LaGuardia Airport’s expansion,” he said. “That’s why we’re doing this.”
Yuan would not disclose the specific price ASAP paid for the property.
Rubicon was looking to sell the hotel before the pandemic hit, but the onset of Covid-19 delayed this, according to Rubicon Founder Marc Gordon. The firm’s investors were looking for some liquidity, and Rubicon was able to successfully reposition the hotel by renovating it and changing management, he added.
Gordon described the Marriott as “a great hotel” and said it “should grow to be even more desirable as the renovation of the airport itself is completed.”
The pandemic has proven devastating for New York’s hospitality industry, with about 200 hotels in the city temporarily or permanently closing as of late September, according to a report from the Hotel Association of New York City.
But Patel said in a statement that the Marriott deal represents “confidence within the investor universe targeting the recovery in the New York City market” and that the hotel is “positioned to grow as transient and corporate travelers return to New York.”
Other recent hotel sales in New York include the Phoenix Hospitality Group’s roughly $147 million purchase of Sam Chang’s Marriott project at 140 W. 28th St. and a Magna Hospitality Group-linked firm’s roughly $115 million purchase of Ashford Hospitality Trust’s Embassy Suites by Hilton at 60 W. 37th St.