New York Post

Morgans checks out of Mondrian SoHo

- By LOIS WEISS and JOSH KOSMAN jkosman@nypost.com

Billionair­e Alex Sapir and partner Rotem Rosen finally succeeded on Monday in getting Jason Kalisman to check out of the Mondrian SoHo.

A Manhattan judge ruled that Sapir and Rosen’s ASRR Capital had the right to break the longterm deal Kalisman’s Morgans Hotel Group had to manage the Mondrian.

ASRR and Morgans had been fighting over management of the downtown hotel since Sapir bought the 263room operation out of foreclosur­e. Kalisman claimed unsuccessf­ully that the contract couldn’t be broken.

The spat climaxed in the wee hours of April 6 when Kalisman’s team called the cops after ASRR management showed up to take over management of the 9 Crosby St. building.

While Sapir lost that first round, Justice Lawrence Marks ruled Monday morning that Sapir did have the right to break the deal and could manage the hotel.

Both sides need to submit a plan this week for an orderly transition — or the judge will set a schedule, Sapir’s lawyer, Bruce Kaplan of Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman, told The Post.

Sapir’s publicly traded Israeli company ASRR bought the celebritym­agnet hotel out of foreclosur­e March 6 for $ 205 million.

“We want to succeed or fail on our own abilities and with our own management team,” Kaplan said.

Sapir plans to make offers to all of the more than 200 Mondrian SoHo employees to remain — except for the hotel manager. ASRR plans to rename the hotel the NoMo Soho.

Justice Marks did not rule on Morgans’ claim that it is owed a $ 110 million fee because of a longterm management contract — one that paid it $ 2.5 million a year.

“While we are disappoint­ed in the court’s decision to order a transfer of operations at Mondrian SoHo, we will continue to pursue our damages claim [ against Sapir] for willful breach of our management contract,” a Morgans spokesman said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States