New York Billionaire Pays $100 Million to Buy Out Sunset Tower Co-Owner

0
New York Billionaire Pays $100 Million to Buy Out Sunset Tower Co-Owner
Stake: West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower.

The storied Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood has a new partial owner.

Billionaire industrialist Len Blavatnik of New York-based Access Industries is joining hotelier Jeff Klein as a co-owner after buying out Klein’s former partner for roughly $100 million last week, the co-owners announced.

That former partner, Thai investor Thosapong Jaruthavee, purchased an 80 percent stake in the property for about $60 million in 2015 through holding company ER Hollywood. At the time, the hotel’s value was pegged at $75 million.

Klein owned the remaining stake, but he wouldn’t comment last week on whether his ownership share had changed in the deal.

Jaruthavee’s stake in the art deco hotel at 8358 Sunset Blvd. was offered up at about a $100 million asking price in February.

Sunset Tower’s average occupancy is about 85 percent, a source familiar with the business said in February. Average room rates hit $450 a night, and during Oscars week can ratchet up to $1,200.

Under Klein’s tenure, the Sunset Tower became a Hollywood hot spot that hosts the Creative Artists Agency’s annual Golden Globes party and attracts the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Lady Gaga. It hosted Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party from 2009 to 2013, helping brand the hotel as a hub for L.A.’s entertainment elite.

Access Industries owns a collection of hotels, including the Four Seasons Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera and the One & Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas.

No posts to display