Watergate Goes to PB Capital
22 07 2009The next chapter is the storied history of the Watergate complex is now ready to unfold. The Watergate Hotel went on the auction block yesterday and ended up going to the sole bidder for a measly $25 million (a steal in our opinion). 
In a twist, the property went to the current owner’s lender after failing to attract more than the opening bid. By setting the opening bid at $25 million PB Capital basically agreed to pay $25 million. No word on what they are going to do with the property yet.
[Photo: automatonempire]
Wow–that price is low.
According to the Express from this morning it will require 100 million in renovations.
I wonder if the building is really worth all that much in the first place. The interiors are horrible from what I’ve heard, with very low ceilings and a ton of work needing to be done throughout. Furthermore, it’s completely surrounded by wide roads with high speed traffic making it quite unfriendly to pedestrians. The buildings don’t really present any retail to the streets either. As I result, I suspect it was probably significantly overvalued in the first place. I think some of this can be fixed, but as Roy said, the price tag will be VERY high, and they will need to do it exceptionally well for it to even be worth the trouble.
Demolish it. Start over. The location, not the building, is the intrinsic value.
The water views alone make the property worth more than that!
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