Watergate Hotel Auctioned for $25 Million
When the Watergate Hotel gets auctioned off, people show up. Nearly ten TV cameras, a whole bunch of real-estate types, and your favorite Housing Complex reporter packed into a Wisconsin Avenue office for the event.
Then we sat in the ultimate state of real-estate/legal boredom, as a functionary read aloud about 15 pages of technical stuff about the sale, the property, the minutiae. That took about 40 minutes.*
Then, to the auction: An immediate opening bid hit the floor—$25 million for this piece of historic Washington. The bid came from a lawyer connected to PB Capital, which happens to be the lender for the current owner of the property, Monument Realty.
Following the bid, there was a bit of commotion. A phone call was made from the front row. People did some whispering and gesticulating. Then, well, nothing. Soon enough, the bidder and the auctioneer went into a private room for some discussions. They returned a short while later.
The proceedings resumed but no more bids surfaced. Sold.
Paul Cooper, a representative from the Alex Cooper Auctioneers, Inc., identified the bidder as David Astrove, who was representing PB Capital, a New York-based real estate outfit, in this transaction.
If nothing else, the auction reflected the Watergate’s upside-downness: Though its market value is $25 million, the outstanding loan balance for Monument Realty is $40 million.
*Original reporting stated that “about 12″ pages were read. An Alex Cooper employee later said 15 pages were read.
Image by Ruth Samuelson
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1:07 pm
That’s a shockingly low amount. It shows how little financing there is available for this sort of thing. 4 years ago this might have sold for over double this amount.
1:20 pm
SG, brilliant observation, given the part where it says the original note amount was $40m….
6:22 pm
Why is the AP reporting that there was NO BIDDERS on the Watergate?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzUf3IIr8qedgjicBX__diS7hdHgD99IUN903
6:37 pm
The only offer on the property was from the owner’s lender, PB Capital. That was the opening bid.