Related and Oxford Sell Hudson Yards Equinox Hotel for $541M

Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group have sold the bottom 38 floors of the 92-story 35 Hudson Yards, which contain the Equinox Hotel New York in addition to office and retail space, to Tokyo-based Mori Trust for $541 million, according to an announcement from Mori Trust.

Mori acquired the hotel through its U.S. subsidiary, Mori America. This is Mori’s 12th investment in the U.S. and second in Manhattan. Mori also has ownership interests in SL Green’s One Vanderbilt and 245 Park Avenue.

Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Marcella Fasulo, Adam Doneger, Josh King and Avery Silverstein from Newmark represented both parties in the sale. 

“We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Equinox Hotel, a luxury lifestyle hotel, and 35 Hudson Yards, featuring high-quality office space, in Manhattan, New York, the cultural and economic center of the U.S.A.,” Miwako Date, president and CEO of Mori Trust, said in the announcement. “Within Japan, we focus not only on owning and operating diverse office buildings but also on developing and operating hotels in collaboration with foreign luxury brands. Acquiring high-quality properties overseas, such as 35 Hudson Yards, contributes to the stability and sustainability of our asset portfolio and will drive further growth in the future.”

Mori’s acquisition totals approximately 490,000 square feet of the 1.095 million-square-foot building, the upper floors of which contain luxury condominiums. Those top floors were not part of the sale. 

Mori Trust does most of its mixed-use development in Tokyo, and had developed 64 residential and commercial properties and 35 hotel and resort facilities worldwide as of March 2024. 

Under what it calls its “Mid- to Long-Term Vision Advance 2030” plan, the company seeks to reach operating revenue of 330 billion yen, or $2.13 billion, by 2030, through investments totaling 1.2 trillion yen, or $7.74 billion, according to the announcement.

Mori jumped into New York investments in June 2023, when the firm purchased a 49.9 percent stake in 245 Park Avenue from SL Green, as Commercial Observer reported at the time. The acquisition valued the property at $2 billion. Then, in November 2024, Mori bought an 11 percent stake in One Vanderbilt from SL Green in a deal that valued that building at $4.7 billion, as CO reported.

Other Mori investments in the U.S. include office buildings 15 Necco Street (in a joint venture with an affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities), 10 St. James Avenue and 75 Arlington Street in Boston, and 601 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C.  

The 212-room Equinox Hotel, which opened in August 2019 and occupies 237,000 square feet across 35 Hudson Yards’ 24th to 38th floors, is a “wellness-focused luxury lifestyle hotel” with features like bedding made from natural materials and “superior light and sound insulation” designed for optimal sleep, according to Mori. The building’s lower levels include an Equinox Club & Spa. Related Companies was involved in the 2006 acquisition of Equinox for $505 million.

Related and Oxford completed a $2 billion capitalization for the building’s development in July 2016, with the Children’s Investment Fund leading a $1.2 billion debt financing for the building’s completion, as CO reported at the time. 

The building opened in 2019, and in August 2022, CO reported that Related was looking to sell the property’s hotel portion, hoping to attract a buyer for $200 million.   

35 Hudson Yards, which is at the corner of 33rd Street and 11th Avenue, was designed by David Childs and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

Bloomberg was first to report the sale.

Representatives from Related and Mori Trust did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Oxford declined to comment.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.