Update 03/29/2016: Next month's scheduled foreclosure auction for the Plaza Hotel has been called off, according to Crain's New York.
David and Simon Reuben, the billionaire brothers who hold the mortgage to the historic landmark, have reportedly canceled the auction in order to give Subrata Roy, The Plaza's current majority owner, more time to pay back his debt and sell the property.
In 2015, after Roy defaulted on payment for the properties, the Monaco-based Reuben brothers stepped in, paying more than $800 million to the the Bank of China, a move that would allow them to negotiate the terms of the loans for the Plaza, as well as the Dream Hotel downtown and London's Grosvenor House.
Previously 03/18/2016: The Plaza Hotel is set to be sold in a foreclosure auction as early as April 26th, Bloomberg News reports.
The New York City landmark consists of 282 hotel rooms and 152 privately owned condo units, but only the hotel rooms, restaurants, and retail spaces are for sale. In other words? The next owner won't have to play landlord to famed residents such as Tommy Hilfiger.
Current majority owner, businessman Subrata Roy, was imprisoned in India in 2014 for defrauding investors - ultimately leading to the recent foreclosure - but as Bloomberg points out, ownernship of the Plaza has been complicated throughout its 109-year-history.
In 1988, 33 years after it was sold by famed hotelier Conrad Hilton, presidential candidate Donald Trump bought the Plaza for $407.5 million. Trump sold the property following his divorce from Ivana Trump - who was the Plaza Hotel's president - to a group including Singapore-based CDL Hotels International Ltd. and Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal in 1995. In 2004, Manhattan-based developer El Ad Properties bought the Plaza and converted some of its hotel rooms into condominiums. Roy came on as a majority owner in 2012.
According to the New York Post, another property, the Dream Downtown - a swanky 4-star hotel also owned by Roy - will be sold with the Plaza in a package deal.
Given that The Baccarat hotel sold for $2 million a key last year - a record valuation for a hotel in the U.S. - an anonymous hotel developer told the New York Post that it's likely The Plaza will sell its 282 units for $3 million a key or more. If you don't have $1 billion to spare, you'll have to settle for jewelry made from the hotel's chandeliers instead. Not too shabby, if we do say so ourselves.
