Maryland, US-based Host Hotels & Resorts is to buy the 775-room New York Helmsley Hotel for US$313.5m (£194.6m).
Once the transaction has completed in late March, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide will take over the management of the property as an unbranded hotel.
The hotel will then be completely refurbished, with the guestrooms renovated and its meeting spaces upgraded, ahead of the mid-town Manhattan property reopening in early/mid 2012 under Starwood's Westin brand.
The sale - through CB Richard Ellis Group - follows the disposal by the Helmsley estate in April last year of The Helmsley Carlton House on Madison Avenue, New York for US$170m (£105.5m).
