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Private equity giant Blackstone Group is taking over luxury US hotel group Strategic Hotels & Resorts for $6 billion.

Strategic Hotels owns 17 hotels operated by chains such as Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott.

The group’s iconic properties include the Four Seasons Washington DC, the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel?in Orange County, California (pictured).

Strategic Hotels' Hotel del Coronado in Southern California is among its landmark properties that are sightseeing attraction in themselves, RBC Capital Markets analyst Wes Golladay told Reuters.

The beachfront hotel opened in 1888 and was designated a national historic land