The famed New York City landmark The Plaza Hotel is expected to go up for sale.
The Sahara Group, an India- based conglomerate and the hotel’s majority owner enlisted JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group, to help find a buyer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Hiring a broker indicates the Sahara Group is serious about selling after several investors including celebrities and governments, have courted purchasing the property in recent years.
The grand entrance to The Plaza Hotel
Donald Trump and Ivana Trump attend a dinner at The Plaza Hotel in 1989
Majestic. The Plaza Hotel on a sunny New York City day
Qatari sovereign-wealth fund, a Shanghai municipal investment fund and Pras Michel, co-founder of the hip-hop group Fugees have expressed interest in the property.
The hotel is estimated to be worth more than half a billion dollars, with rooms valued around $2million each.
Interested investors had gone as far as taking meetings with Sahara founder and Chairman Subrata Roy, where he was incarcerated in a jail in New Delhi- as he was serving a two-year-sentence on contempt charges.
Actress Marilyn Monroe during a press conference, leans over a banister at the Plaza Hotel in New York City
Jackie Kennedy talks to Baroness De La Bovillerie at the Wild West Ball at The Plaza
Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy attend Democratic National Committee Fundraising Dinner on December 10, 1967 at the Plaza Hotel
The Beatles pictured at a press Conference at their suite in The Plaza Hotel New York, 1964
None of those talks moved to a sale, which left potential buyers frustrated and unsure Sahara was serious about selling, according to the WSJ.
The storied legacy of the 110-year-old hotel is rich with famous faces and dignitaries alike.
John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monore and the Beatles have all stayed at the hotel that was also once owned by a not yet President Donald Trump.
The ‘State Room’ one of the ornate meeting rooms of The Plaza Hotel
A 5th Avenue Suite at The Plaza
The dining room at the Plaza Hotel
The Palm Court Restaurant at the Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel has been in countless films including Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘North by Northwest’ (1959) and was featured in the American classic novel The Great Gatsby (1925).
Sean Hennessey, chief executive officer of Lodging Advisors, a hotel consulting company not involved in the sale, tells WSJ hiring a broker is real indication a sale is likely.
‘This suggests a commitment to consummate a transaction,’ Hennessey said. Also a broker ‘might draw people back that looked once and walked away.’
The Plaza Hotel’s buying and selling history is as rich as its guest.
Conrad Hilton bought the Plaza Hotel for $7.4million in October 1943.
Donald Trump purchased the Plaza in 1988 for $390million, and said of the buy: ‘I haven’t purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece – the Mona Lisa. For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal that was not economic – for I can never justify the price I paid.’
Mosaic tiles at The Plaza (left), the hotel was granted landmark status by the city of New York in 1986 (right)
A deal was made with the Plaza’s creditors under Trump to take a 49 per cent stake in the hotel to forgive its $250million debt and was submitted as a prepackaged bankruptcy in 1992.
Roy and Sahara have considered offers on the Plaza over the years to raise money to pay off debtors, according to the WSJ. Roy has been out on parole since 2016.
cool will need a small timeline box when did ivana buy it and how much then sold to home whom closed which years sold again for how much etc