BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management, as manager of the Kona fund, has sold the Grand Hotel Puccini in Milan, Italy to Singapore's First Sponsor Group.
Financial details were not disclosed but local media reported a price in the €9.3 mln region.
The former four-star hotel, located at 33 Corso Buenos Aires, one of Milan's main shopping streets, consists of six floors above the ground and a basement, with a total of 65 rooms. It is currently vacant and unleased.
The property is understood to be the subject of an ongoing dispute between the Kona fund and a former tenant of the building, which allegedly said it had already struck a deal to acquire the asset.
The hotel was acquired in 2015 by the Kona fund for a figure rumoured to be in the €3.5 mln region, after the hotel's previous owners fell into bankruptcy. This just five years after it had changed hands for €16 mln in 2010.
First Sponsor told media in Singapore that the litigation process to fully secure the asset could take up to a decade. Reports suggest that the former tenant disputing the sale is the iH Hotels Group, which previously owned and managed the property.
CBRE Hotels advised BNP Paribas REIM.
