New York City without The Plaza Hotel is a city most natives wouldn’t recognize. Where would Eloise go? Hopefully The Plaza’s starlette won’t have to go anywhere, but we will only find out on April 26.
In 2014 Sahara India Pariwar, 75-percent owner of The Plaza Hotel at the time, defaulted on loan agreements after chairman Subrata Roy was imprisoned for defrauding investors. Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben then bought the loan from Bank of China Ltd. and are the current holders of the mortgage on the New York icon. The Swiss duo will be joining the sale with their other luxury hotel property, the Dream Downtown in Chelsea.
The foreclosure auction, which the Reuben’s have reportedly been working on for quite some time, could be the chance of a lifetime. The Plaza Hotel has seen its fair share of owners. Donald Trump bought the hotel in 1988 before selling it to Troy Richard Campbell for a casual $325 million. This could be your turn to own a piece of New York history, if you’ve got a spare $1 billion lying around. The grand hotel boasts 282 hotel rooms and 152 privately owned condo units. But only the hotel, restaurants and retail shops will be sold.
“The Baccarat just went for $2 million a key,” one hotel developer told The Post of the luxury hotel, which sold for $230 million to a China-based insurance group.
“The Plaza will likely go for more,” as much as $3 million a key or more, “due to its trophy location on Fifth Avenue and its history,”The Post‘s source said.
“It’s been a dirty little secret that The Plaza has been headed to foreclosure,” an industry source said, adding that “there are some offers in the wings.”
The day of reckoning is coming up this month. There is no telling how long it may be before you’d get another chance at making your mark on the history of New York City. So if you’ve got the big bucks, let’s just say, the time is now.
