Legendary Plaza Hotel will sell for $600M to Saudi prince

Update (5/8/18): In an unexpected turn of events, global real estate company, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. and wealthy Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal are now slated to buy the Plaza Hotel for $600 million.

According to the New York Post, last May Ashkenazy purchased a controlling portion of Prince Al-waleed’s stake in the hotel that gave them the option to match another bid. Ashkenazy and Al-waleed decided to exercise that option, matching the $600 million bid offered by Chimera Group and. the Hakim Organization, who were in contract to purchase the Plaza.

The deal is expected to close sometime this summer.

The Plaza Hotel could finally sell within the next seven weeks, putting an end to a long, complicated sales saga that has dragged on for years. The Real Deal has learned that a group of investors led by the Chimera Group and the Hakim Organization are in contract to purchase the once storied hotel from the Sahara Group for $600 million.

These investors now have seven weeks to close the deal, according to TRD. Meanwhile Sahara might consider accepting a lower bid from one of the minority shareholders in the hotel, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, during that same time frame.

The hotel has had many owners since it opened in 1907 including Donald Trump and the Hilton Group. The El-Ad Group purchased the hotel in 2004 and converted 100 of its hotel rooms into condos. The Sahara Group came along in 2012 and scooped it up for $575 million, but soon after that Sahara Group’s president, Subrata Roy was embroiled in one scandal after the next (and jailed in India), and his firm was looking to sell the hotel to cover his bail.

In May 2017, it was reported that a Saudi prince was looking to purchase the hotel, but that deal also fell through, and the company hired a broker to shop around the hotel in August last year. Those efforts seem to finally have paid off, but looking at the hotel’s past it would be premature to call it a successful sale just yet.

• Saudi prince and NYC company to buy Plaza Hotel for $600M [New York Post]
• Shahal Khan, Kamran Hakim in contract to buy Plaza Hotel for $600M: sources [TRD]
• The legendary Plaza Hotel is, once again, up for sale [Curbed]
• Beleaguered Plaza Hotel purchase may soon be finalized [Curbed]