Alwaleed’s Kingdom and partners to sell New York’s Plaza Hotel
New York’s iconic Plaza Hotel is about to change hands.
Its buyers are Shahal Khan, founder of Dubai-based family office White City Ventures, and Kamran Hakim, of New York landlord Hakim Organisation. They agreed to pay $600 million for the hotel, at the southeast corner of Central Park, in a deal that is set to be completed on June 25.
“We worked for three and a half years to get to this stage and can’t wait until it’s closed,” said Mr Khan, who confirmed the purchase but declined to speak further. Mr Hakim did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agreement was first reported last Thursday by the Real Deal.
Mumbai-born British billionaires David and Simon Reuben are providing a loan of roughly $415m, or almost 70 per cent of the transaction’s value, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
A spokesman for the Reubens, who owned debt on the property, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Plaza, which opened 111 years ago, is known as the fictional home of children’s book character Eloise and has been featured in films such as Home
and North by Northwest. Among its prior owners is President Donald Trump, who was forced to sell it more than two decades ago as part of a bankruptcy. He also married his second wife, Marla Maples, there.
A previous owner, Elad Group, controlled by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, converted part of the Plaza to condominiums. The hotel portion is managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, a unit of France’s Accor SA.
Its current owners include Sahara India Pariwar, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holdings and Ashkenazy Acquisition Sahara have been trying to sell its stake, in part because its chairman, Subrata Roy, is under pressure from the Indian government, which has ordered him to return billions of dollars to investors.