Trending
Anbang files offering plan for 352 condos at Waldorf Astoria
Insurance behemoth seized by Chinese government last month
Despite China’s takeover of Anbang Insurance Group last month, luxury condominiums are still coming to the Waldorf Astoria.
An offering plan for “The Towers at 301 Park Avenue” hit the website of the New York state Attorney General’s office on Monday. No prices were listed for the 352 units. The sponsor is AB Stable LLC, an affiliate of the Chinese insurance giant.
“Anbang owns the property. Nothing has changed,” a source familiar with the project said.
According to the AG filing, the number of condos being planned is fewer than the 409 that Anbang envisioned last year when it filed a CPS-1, or “test-the-market” condo application. But the luxury market has also slowed since then, with the median sales price for luxury units down 13.2 percent to $5.7 million during 2017’s fourth quarter, according to Miller Samuel.
The Waldorf will hold 350 hotel rooms and suites on the lower floors, according to construction plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. Those plans show condos will be located on floors 14 through 43. Floors 14 and 15 will have 28 units each. Higher floors will have fewer units: floors 40, 41 and 42 will have two units a piece.
Anbang [TRDataCustom] — which closed the iconic, 1,413-key hotel last year to begin conversion work — has said it will preserve the hotel’s Art Deco interiors.
The insurance conglomerate bought the Waldorf from Hilton Hotel Group for $1.95 billion in 2014 amid a frenzy of Chinese investment in U.S. real estate. Conversion of the iconic property has advanced, despite the Chinese government’s crackdown on such investment.
In February, China’s insurance regulator seized control of Anbang and said its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, had been prosecuted for economic crimes. The company said at the time that it was still committed to its overseas subsidiaries and would “provide necessary support to their healthy development.”