Administrators of bankrupt Signa Prime Selection AG are selling the Park Hyatt Vienna and luxury retail premises, including Prada’s Vienna store.
Real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured LLC has been appointed to offer the properties that are expected to attract bids in the region of €350 million ($361 million) to €370 million.
The 146-room hotel accounts for roughly half of that price tag, with the luxury stores adjacent to another Signa asset, the so-called Goldenes Quartier, making up the other, they said.
The properties have about €155 million of debt secured against them from German pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer, one of the people said. Signa had valued the building at €422 million in a 2022 presentation to investors seen by Bloomberg.
The launch of the sale process will coincide with the annual Mipim property conference in the second week of March, an annual gathering of real estate investors in Cannes attended by Signa founder Rene Benko in the past. It comes after a spate of recent Signa sales including the Upper West tower in Berlin and the Viennese palais that houses Austria’s Constitutional Court.
The unraveling of Benko’s Austrian property empire has provided a rare source of high-profile deals at a time when Europe’s real estate markets grapple with higher interest rates. Would-be sellers have been reluctant to offer properties for sale after the spike in borrowing costs impacted valuations, preferring to cling on and hope for a recovery rather than crystallizing losses.
Hotels have been a rare bright spot amid the commercial real estate gloom, with the management agreements on which they typically operate helping to shield landlords from inflation. That’s because room rates can adjust immediately to higher costs in contrast to offices or stores that are typically held on long-term leases with fixed rents.
Benk has denied wrongdoing. Signa Prime’s administrators have been attempting to claw back cash for creditors through property sales, as well as seeking damages and repayments from former managers and business partners. Asset sales have been complicated by the company’s complex debt structure. Signa also controls the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf.
Hyatt Hotels Corp. has a long-term management agreement for the property.
Park Hyatt Vienna
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