Blackstone Group has confirmed that it agreed to take over ownership of the 415-room Sofitel Chicago Water Tower via voluntary forfeiture.
The transaction came to light on Tuesday in an anonymously-sourced report from The Wall Street Journal’s Developments blog.
The hotel’s owners included GEM Realty Capital Inc., Whitehall and the hotel’s management company Accor, Courcouronnes, France. Faced with a delinquent mortgage, the group opted for forfeiture rather than foreclosure after Blackstone bought US$85 million of the property’s debt earlier this year. The Wall Street Journal reported that according to loan data from Morningstar Credit Ratings, the hotel’s cash flow was US$6.5 million in 2011, down from US$13.4 million in 2007.
Accor separately confirmed that it will remain the hotel’s management company under the Sofitel brand.