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Saudi Prince & Ben Ashkenazy to Buy Plaza Hotel for $600M

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The legendary New York City Plaza Hotel has changed hands quite a few times, and since last August, it has been actively listed for sale. While the task of selling so desirable a property seems like an easy feat, the past has proven otherwise. Now, there is new promise that the hotel will be sold within the next seven weeks. As reported by the Real Deal, a group of investors including Chimera Group, led by Shahal Khan, together with the Hakim Organization is in hard contract to buy the Plaza Hotel for about $600 million.

Real estate tycoon Ben Ashkenazy adds NYC’s storied Plaza Hotel to his growing portfolio of acquisitions

As per the NY Times, the partners have made a $30 million nonrefundable down payment. Initially, it was suggested that Khan, who founded Dubai-based family office White City Venture, planned to fund the purchase with the help of a cryptocurrency initial coin offering. Sources now say the acquisition will be paid for using equity from Khan, Kamran Hakim and other investors, as well as a loan from the Mumbai-born British billionaires, David and Simon Reuben. During these seven weeks, while the partners will work to close the deal, the current owner may consider a lower bid from one of the current minority owners, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation.

Sahara Group, which presently owns the Plaza, purchased the property in 2012 for roughly $575 million. The company President, Subrata Roy, was subsequently entangled in several successive scandals which ultimately landed him in jailed in his home country, India. The company has been trying frantically to sell the hotel because they need funds to cover his bail. In May 2017, minority partner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Saudi Arabia trying to purchase 75 percent of the Hotel share in partnership with Ashkenazy, but the Prince too landed in jail. JLL international director Jeffrey Davis, who heads the New York office of JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, has been shopping the hotel around since then.

Since the 1907 opening of the Plaza Hotel, the 19-story, 282-key hotel, has been owned by the New York Life Insurance Company, hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, and Donald J. Trump. The Elad Group too purchased the trophy building near Central Park in 2004 for $675 million, making extensive renovations and adding a residential condominium component.

By: Ilana Siyance

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