The federal government has quietly sold one of Washington DC’s most storied addresses — just steps from the White House, to boot.
It offloaded the landmark Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue to the merchant bank that already controls the property for a reported $80 million — a deal that could quickly flip for five times that amount.
The General Services Administration confirmed Wednesday that BDT & MSD Partners, which has held the leasehold on the 263-room Waldorf Astoria hotel since snatching it out of foreclosure in 2024, has now acquired the underlying land and building outright.
The GSA said the transaction “supports GSA’s ongoing effort to reduce the federal government’s real estate holdings and concentrate resources on core assets.”
The sale price, which the GSA declined to confirm, was reported by the Wall Street Journal at $80 million based on people familiar with the matter. That figure, while steep on its face, may prove to be a bargain.
BDT & MSD is already entertaining a handful of suitors reportedly circling the property at around $400 million.
The gap between buy and sell price reflects a fundamental shift in the asset’s profile.
A long-term lease, even one spanning nearly a century, carries inherent risk.
Full ownership of both building and land eliminates all of that, making the Romanesque Revival tower at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. a far cleaner trophy for any investor or hotel group looking to plant a flag steps from the White House.
The GSA said the deal permanently secures public access to the building’s iconic clock tower while establishing binding protections for its architectural heritage through a preservation covenant.
A separate fine arts covenant ensures that works inside the building, including Robert Irwin’s 48 Shadow Planes and a Benjamin Franklin statue, remain the property of the American people.
A spokesperson for the Hilton hotel group said “it remains business as usual at Waldorf Astoria Washington DC,” with the team continuing to welcome guests. The company’s long-term management agreement on the property is expected to survive any future ownership change.
The building’s recent history reads like a cautionary tale about overleveraged luxury real estate. The Trump Organization won a competitive bidding contest for the long-term lease in 2012, besting Marriott and Hilton, and opened the Trump International Hotel there in 2016.
It sold the leasehold for $375 million in 2022 to Miami-based CGI Merchant Group, which re-baptized it as a Waldorf Astoria. CGI almost immediately ran into financial trouble, defaulting on a $285 million loan.
A BDT & MSD spokeswoman previously said the bank “actively engaged with CGI in a constructive manner, allowing ample time for them to explore financing and alternative options” before ultimately taking the property at a foreclosure auction in August 2024.
The Trump Organization has reportedly explored getting back into the picture. Eric Trump traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a sit-down with a BDT & MSD executive last year to discuss a possible reacquisition, though neither side confirmed whether those talks are still alive.
The GSA said taxpayer revenues from the property over the past decade, including the current sale, are expected to top $110 million — a notable turnaround from the days when the federal government was absorbing roughly $6 million a year in losses on the building before it was converted to a hotel.
