{"id":1004139867,"date":"2016-03-22T01:44:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T09:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004139867"},"modified":"2020-04-13T01:07:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T09:07:09","slug":"starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\/","title":{"rendered":"Starwood Hotels, Havana Bound, Resumes Talks with Marriott"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>

Thomas Mangas, Starwood Hotels & Resorts<\/p><\/div>\n

Havana<\/strong>\u2014The week is off to a busy start for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwid<\/a>e. While it has resumed talks to merge with Marriott International, the hospitality giant has made history by becoming the first U.S. hotel company to enter the Cuban market in nearly six decades.<\/p>\n

Cuba has been making a lot of headlines this week.\u00a0President Obama\u00a0made an historic move by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country in 88 years on Monday, March 21, and Starwood led the U.S. lodging industry’s shift in Cuba by announcing three new agreements to develop hotel assets on the Caribbean island.<\/p>\n

“The entire U.S. hospitality industry has watched Cuba with great interest, and we are thrilled to lead the charge and bring our sophisticated, high-end brands into the market at this inflection point,” Thomas Mangas, CEO of Starwood, said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0didn’t take too long, considering. It was in December 2014 when President Obama\u00a0announced that the U.S. would alter its policies toward Cuba\u00a0in an effort to normalize relations, which had turned sour and come to an end in 1961. And in October 2015, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and the Treasury initiated the U.S.-Cuba Regulatory Dialogue, paving the way for\u00a0the removal of certain restrictions,\u00a0including those on\u00a0commercial travel and U.S.\u00a0companies’\u00a0freedom to establish and maintain a presence in the country, as noted in a document\u00a0released by the Commerce Department.<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0Starwood is moving full steam\u00a0ahead with its creation of a new footprint in Havana, and the landmark Hotel Inglaterra will be among three upscale rebranded lodging destinations. Starwood\u00a0has formed a partnership with the nearly 140-year-old hotel’s owner , Gran\u00a0Caribe, and together they will\u00a0relaunch the\u00a0property\u00a0as an 83-key hotel under\u00a0Starwood’s The Luxury Collection brand. The\u00a0company has also teamed with Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA, owner of the five-year-old Hotel Quinta Avenida, on a transformation that will yield the\u00a0186-key Four Points by Sheraton Havana. And\u00a0having\u00a0inked a letter of intent with Hotel Santa Isabel’s owner, Habaguanex, Starwood will\u00a0reinvent the property as a member\u00a0of The Luxury Collection, offering 27 guestrooms.<\/p>\n

Starwood doesn’t want to change the face of Havana’s hotel market with these three projects; it endeavors to enhance it. “Hotel conversions…allow us to preserve history, architecture and culture while offering a unique branded experience,” Jorge Giannattasio, senior vice president & chief of Latin America Operations with Starwood, noted in\u00a0prepared remarks.<\/p>\n

Starwood’s presence in\u00a0Cuba will become real for visitors\u00a0later this year when Hotel Inglaterra and the new Four Points by Sheraton Havana open their doors under their new flags.<\/p>\n

Starwood will have company in Cuba, as it is being quickly followed back into the market by Marriott International Inc., which announced that the Treasury Department has signed off on its application to commence business in the country. However, any competition between the two hotel giants is now a moot point, as\u00a0Starwood has accepted Marriott’s $13.6 billion merger offer that will create the world’s largest hotel company.<\/p>\n

The amended agreement with Marriott implies that Starwood shareholders will receive $21 in cash and 0.80 share of Marriott Class A common stock for each Starwood share. Following the completion of the merger, Starwood shareholders will own roughly 34 percent of the combined company’s common stock.<\/p>\n

Starwood accepted the offer after Anbang Insurance Group made a $12.2 billion non-binding proposal<\/a> to acquire the company on March 10. This week, Marriott came back with a sweetened offer that values the company at $79.53 a share, compared to a cash bid of $78 a share from Anbang, according to a\u00a0press release from Marriott and Starwood on the revised offer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hospitality giant, which recently accepted a $13.6 billion offer to merge with Marriott International, will become the first hotel company to enter the Cuban market in six decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":969,"featured_media":1004139931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21782,21808,21751,16,21783,21742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004139867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-featured","category-hotel","category-international","category-investment","category-latest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStarwood Hotels, Havana Bound, Resumes Talks with Marriott - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Starwood Hotels, Havana Bound, Resumes Talks with Marriott\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The hospitality giant, which recently accepted a $13.6 billion offer to merge with Marriott International, will become the first hotel company to enter the Cuban market in six decades.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-22T09:44:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T09:07:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2016\/03\/Thomas-Mangas-crop1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"397\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Barbra Murray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Barbra Murray\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1edda962dd3af55af8a203870f9fc32\"},\"headline\":\"Starwood Hotels, Havana Bound, Resumes Talks with Marriott\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-22T09:44:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T09:07:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":650,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/46\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/Thomas-Mangas-crop1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Development\",\"Featured\",\"Hotel\",\"International\",\"Investment\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/starwood-hotels-is-havana-bound\\\/\",\"name\":\"Starwood Hotels, Havana Bound, Resumes Talks with Marriott - 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