(Bloomberg) –Maybourne Hotel Group, a Qatari-backed firm, is closing in on a deal for the Montage Beverly Hills, a five-star hotel in the heart of the California city’s luxury shopping district, people with knowledge of the discussions said.
A purchase could be completed as soon as this week, said the people, who requested anonymity because the matter is private. Bloomberg reported last month that an unnamed Middle Eastern buyer had made a deposit on the 201-room property, currently owned by Ohana Real Estate Investors, in a deal that would value it at more than $400 million.
The transaction would be the first in the U.S. by Knightsbridge, London-based Maybourne, which has in its portfolio three iconic London hotels: Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley, according to its website. Constellation Hotels, linked to former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani’s family office, bought a 64% stake in Maybourne in 2015 from the billionaire Barclay brothers.
Representatives for Maybourne, Montage and Ohana declined to comment.
The Montage, located in Beverly Hills’s Golden Triangle neighborhood, has a 20,000-square-foot (1,860-square-meter) spa and a rooftop pool overlooking Rodeo Drive. Weekend rates at the hotel range from $595 a night for a king room to $10,000 for the most-expensive suites.
Middle Eastern buyers have flocked to U.S. luxury hotels in recent years, acquiring assets such as Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel and the St. Regis New York. If the sale closes as planned, it would be among the most-expensive U.S. hotel transactions on a per-room basis at about $2.1 million per key, one of the people said.
The Trump Organization is said to be seeking $2 million a key for its hotel in Washington, D.C.
