Marriott Sells Edition Brand for $815 Million

Marriott International, which announced in August that it would sell three Edition hotels in London, Miami Beach and Manhattan has named the buyer: companies owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The purchase price is $815 million.

Marriott will operate the hotels through contracts with the new owner.

The Edition brand, a collaboration between Marriott and Ian Schrager, was originally slated to open 100 hotels with a 10-year time frame. Those plan were scaled substantially back, at least in part, because of the recession.    

The London Edition opened in September. The Miami Beach Edition is slated to open in the second half of this year, and the New York Edition in the first half of 2015.       

“The sale of all three company-owned hotels is a powerful endorsement of our Edition brand,” said Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International, in a statement. “This transaction is a key component of our strategy to build the Edition brand by selectively developing spectacular, brand-defining hotels in gateway cities. We look forward to managing these hotels for many years.”

The Miami Beach property’s residential unit is not part of the sale. Rather, Marriott will hold on to the residential units pending their sales to individual buyers.  Marriott said more Edition properties are in the works for Los Angeles; Abu Dhabi; Sanya, China; Gurgaon, India; and Bangkok.

The Edition brand was introduced in 2008. An Edition property in Waikiki was plagued by a hostile takeover by its owners, which was then followed by lawsuits between Marriott and the property’s owners.