Beanie Baby mogul H. Ty Warner, owner of the sumptuous Four Seasons Hotel New York on 57th Street in Manhattan, has received an unsolicited $900 million offer to sell the property, according to an anonymous source close to the deal, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.
The unidentified potential buyer is probably affiliated with the Brunei government on the island of Borneo, according to the source, as reported by Bloomberg.
If the deal goes through, The WSJ said it will rank, “as one of the priciest hotel sales ever in Manhattan,” amounting to $2.4 million per room for the iconic 386-room property.
Rooms at the hotel start at over $900 a night and the Ty Warner Penthouse goes for $35,000 a night.
A sale would also mean an end to the Four Seasons brand at the chain’s flagship location, although it would come at a price, requiring Warner to spend “tens of thousands” to remove it.
Four Seasons must now match the price by the end of the month if it wants to continue as the hotel’s manager, according to Bloomberg.
The Toronto, Canada-based Four Seasons was established in 1960 by Isadore Sharp and has since grown to include 90 hotels on every continent except Antarctica, according to the company’s website.
Four Seasons does not own any of the hotels in its chain, but only operates them, Bloomberg reported.
Warner bought the hotel on East 57th Street in 1999 for $275 million, Bloomberg reported. He made his millions with the creation of the Beanie Baby brand of stuffed toys in the early nineties, named for their plastic bean-like stuffing.
Four Seasons declined to comment to either of the news sources mentioned here.
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