Who bought out Wanda in Chicago? Hong Kong-based Wanda Hotel Development has agreed to sell its stake in Chicago’s Vista Tower for US$270 million, the Chicago Tribune reported. Chicago-based Magellan Development Group has agreed to buy the 90% ownership stake from the unit of Dalian Wanda Group. Magellan owns the other 10% stake in the 1,191-foot-tall condominium and hotel project, which has been under construction for almost four years. The sale agreement was reached July 24.
Black travelers matter: In a blog post from Peter Bates (president of luxury marketing firm Strategic Vision), Bates talks about how quickly the issue of race and diversity has burst into our collective consciousness. Along with our struggles with COVID-19, the travel business has been grappling with racial inequality, he writes, and many are unhappy about systemic racism in the travel industry but not sure how to address it.
Marriott, Hilton, IHG dominate pipelines: In the recently released quarterly United States Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics, the franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines at the end of the second quarter of 2020 are Marriott International with 1,487 projects/195,952 rooms, followed by Hilton Worldwide with 1,395 projects/160,078 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 920 projects/94,499 rooms. Combined these three companies account for 68% of the projects in the total pipeline; roughly the same percentage as the Q1’20 close.
Bryant Park Hotel being converted to office space: New York’s Bryant Park Hotel is checking out of its long-time home on West 40th Street, The Post has learned. The entire landmarked building, including ground-floor restaurant Koi and underground lounge Celon, is being offered as “boutique” office space by Philips International, the agent for owners Philip Pilevsky, Raymond Gindi and Joseph Chehebar. All 122,000 square feet on 25 floors are available in sizes from 1,900 to 7,535 square feet