Japanese began buying trophy properties like Rockefeller Center in the late 1980s, there was an intense reaction.
David Letterman began his show one evening with the announcer saying, “From New York, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, it’s ‘Late Night with David Letterman.’ ” A New York Times Op-Ed was titled, “An Economic Pearl Harbor?”
Even Donald J. Trump got in on the act: “Bidding on a building in New York is an act of futility, because the Japanese will pay more than it’s worth just to screw us,” he told Playboy in 1990. “They want to own Manhattan.”
A quarter-century later, it is China’s turn.
On Monday, in a head-turning series of deals, a Chinese insurance company that just over a year ago purchased the Waldorf Astoria, bought $6.5 billion of properties from the Blackstone Group and made a $12.8 billion offer to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.
The collection of brands — Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, St. Regis — is remarkable. Properties include the Essex House on Central Park South; the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, where “Some Like it Hot” was filmed; the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel and a smattering of Four Seasons and Fairmont properties.
When the insurer, Anbang, purchased the Waldorf in 2015, there was concern that the historic hotel — where the United States ambassador to the United Nations resides — had fallen into the hands of a Chinese company. President Obama, who used to routinely stay at the Waldorf as United States presidents had done since 1947, switched hotels the next time he stayed overnight in Manhattan. The White House was said to be worried that the Chinese could have planted surveillance. (Mr. Obama stayed at the Millennium One UN New York and on a subsequent trip stayed at the Palace Hotel, which is owned by a South Korean company.)
Should there be concern over Anbang’s aggressive real estate push? And will the deals become part of the debate raging during the presidential campaign about foreigners taking American jobs and buying up assets here?
http://archive.is/rTSXX
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/business/dealbook/unpacking-a-chinese-companys-us-hotel-buying-spree.html?_r=1