Commercial Property

Blackstone poised to double money on former Burlington

Property investor selling hotels in London, Dublin and Amsterdam for about €980m

Blackstone Group, the world’s biggest private-equity property investor, plans to sell hotel buildings in London, Dublin and Amsterdam. The hotels are all operated under Hilton Worldwide’s DoubleTree brand.

Fri May 27 2016 - 13:56

Joe Brennan and Pamela Newenham

Blackstone Group, the world's biggest private-equity property investor, is poised to double its investment in the former Burlington hotel in Dublin.

The firm has hired agents to sell the hotel, along with fellow inns operated by the Hilton Worldwide’s DoubleTree brand in London and Amsterdam for a combined €980 million, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

Broker Eastdil has been mandated to sell the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Tower of London, valued at about £350 million.

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Savills is handling the sale of the former Burlington hotel in Dublin, valued at more than €180 million.

Blackstone was among the first wave of overseas investors to dip into the Irish property market after the crash when it bought the Burlington in 2012 for €67 million. It spent a further €20 million refurbishing the premises, according to sources, some €4 million more than was flagged at the time.

Pat McCann, chief executive of Ireland’s largest and fastest-growing hotel group Dalata, yesterday ruled bidding for the the DoubleTree by Hilton in Dublin, saying it would most likely appeal to another private equity suitor.

European hotel owners are selling properties in order to take advantage of demand from investors seeking to profit from growing travel in the region. Lodging deals in the region rose 79 per cent to €23 billion in 2015, the most on record, according to data compiled by CBRE Group. Acquisitions in the UK, Germany and France led the surge.

Tourist arrivals to Europe rose 5 per cent in 2015, reaching a record 609 million visitors, the UN’s World Tourism Organisation said in January. London had a record 18.6 million overnight stays from overseas visitors, up 7 per cent from the year earlier, according to the UK government.

Blackstone has $101 billion of real estate under management, according to its website. Blackstone is also the biggest shareholder in Hilton, owning about 46 per cent of the hospitality company's shares.

(Additional reporting, Bloomberg)

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