WSJ Blogs - Developments - Real Estate News And Analysis From The Wall Street Journal -Starwood Commands Top Price For Luxury Shops At St. Regis

Hotel operator Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. this week sold the 24,700 square feet of shops in its 229-room St. Regis hotel in Midtown Manhattan to a group of three buyers for a whopping $117 million in cash. That's $4,736 per square foot, more than three times the next priciest deal in Manhattan in recent years, according to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, a New York-based brokerage. The shops in that expensive space at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street are De Beers Diamond Jewelers Ltd., Pucci and Bottega Veneta.