Hilton to Sell the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to Chinese Insurance Company for $1.95 Billion

It’s where the Waldorf salad was invented; it was the first hotel to offer room service; and it has its own railway platform to Grand Central, large enough to fit FDR’s car. The historic tidbits about the Waldorf Astoria are plenty, but now the world-famous hotel is making big changes to its future.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings, who has officially owned the Art Deco landmark since 1972, has agreed to sell the 1,232-room hotel to the Anbang Insurance Group Co., a financial and insurance company based in Beijing, for $1.95 billion. Hilton, the world’s largest publicly traded hotel operator, will continue to manage the property under a “strategic partnership.”

According to the announcement made today, the full-block hotel will undergo a major renovation to restore its “historic grandeur” as part of the sale and 100-year management agreement. McLean, Virginia-based Hilton will use the sale profits to acquire additional hotel assets in the country. Anbang was founded in 2004 and has more than 200 million customers. Their purchase is on trend with large insurance companies buying hotels as investments.

[Via Crain’s]

Lead image via KerSaber

Tags : 301 Park Avenue, Anbang Insurance Group Co., Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Waldorf Astoria

Neighborhoods : Midtown East