News this evening that the 438-room LaGuardia Aiport Marriott in New York state has been sold by AIB and another lender, Capmark to Rubicon Companies, a Connecticut real estate investment company. The hotel was originally owned by RLJ Lodging Trust, a company you won’t be familiar with and was subject to an AIB loan which was foreclosed.
The sale price has raised some eyebrows in the New York real estate community. At a sale price of USD 22m ( €17m) or USD 50,000 per room for a hotel which boasts 80% occupancy and nightly rates of USD 159, it looks as if AIB has taken a bath on the transaction – the hotel was originally bought by RLJ from LaSalle Hotel Properties for USD 69m in 2008. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average sale price per room for New York hotels is USD 163,130.
AIB and Capmark were represented by Cushman and Wakefield.
@NWL
Ireland is being ransacked. A forced policy of deleveraging through fire sales is forcing massive losses onto Irish citizens on a weekly basis.This sale looks like another one. Sell at any price to meet an ECB imposed target of reducing ‘dependence’ on the ECB, so that the money can be taken back by the ECB and burned.
Can we expect a comment from the public interest directors on why such losses were considered necessary in the national or public interest?
This sale is typical of the results being achieved from property asset sales by receivers appointed by NAMA and AIB in particular. Bankers, accountants and receivers are not the people to market properties. They are useless at it and, swimming with the world’s greatest sharks, are completely out of their depth.
As JR says, Ireland, with the help of the clowns in the banks, is being ransacked…. Pass the Vaseline.
…especially when they are working in public institutes, which makes them essentially civil servants, and so are dealing with taxpayer money.
When can we expect the hike in mortgage interest rates “to bring the bank back to profitability?” With deals like these, they’ll whack another half percent on the home owners and won’t use the Vaseline.
Took a bath? It sounds like they were paid to strip — well strip the Irish exchequer at least.
At least AIB are able to defend their patch in London…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2263920/Serial-fraudster-Achilleas-Kallakis-posed-property-tycoon-mastermind-Britains-biggest-mortgage-worth-750MILLION-jailed-seven-years.html
Hang on, the SFO was the driver there…. AIB’s exit was to lend dosh to Green to buy the properties, nice little ribbon tied around that one.