Will NYC hotels see bids from China's insurers?

Will a Chinese insurance company go after any of the more than 30 hotels in New York City that reportedly are now up for sale, including the Park Hyatt in the luxury tower One57, where billionaires have acquired condos?

The Real Deal cited anonymous sources on Aug 12 about the number of hotels that have come on the market. Jeffrey Davis, the head of JLL's New York hospitality division, called the number "unprecedented", according to The Real Deal.

Hyatt has had talks with potential buyers for the West 57th Street property, but no deal appears imminent, The Real Deal said.

"If the right buyer stepped up, Hyatt would sell that hotel tomorrow," an anonymous broker was quoted by the publication.

Representatives for Hyatt declined to comment on the potential sale of the Park Hyatt, The Real Deal said.

The Park Hyatt is a 210-room, five-star hotel on the lower level of One57.

The 90-story skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street has sold many of its condos to wealthy foreigners, among them Guoqing Chen, a founder of Hainan Airlines, the largest independent air carrier in China and part of the HNA Group, according to The New York Times. He bought a floor-through unit on the 57th floor for nearly $47.4 million, the newspaper reported in May 2015.

Last December, a penthouse at One57 sold for $100.5 million, breaking the record for the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City.

In 2015, Chinese companies bought $5.13billion in US real estate and hotels, a 68percent jump from the $3.05billion they spent a year earlier, according to data from the Rhodium Group, an advisory firm that tracks Chinese investments in the US.

In 2014, Anbang paid $1.95 billion for the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Park Avenue and will convert it into a combination of condos and hotel rooms. An affiliate of China's Sunshine Insurance Group paid $230 million for the 114-room luxury Baccarat Hotel on West 53rd Street.

In March, Anbang made its biggest deal for prime US property, agreeing to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts for $6.5 billion only three months after private-equity group Blackstone took the luxury hotels collection private.

aiheping@chinadailyusa.com