Yitzhak Tshuva has done it again. His company, Elad Properties, bought the Manhattan landmark Plaza Hotel from Plaza Operating Towers for $675 million on Friday.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, a nephew of King Fahd, and Millennium and Copthorne's (LSE:MLC) jointly owned Plaza Operating Towers.
Tshuva paid $838,000 per room for the hotel, a record for New York City, according to an industry source. New York's hotel industry has begun to recover from the September 11, 2001, attacks, with room rates rising 10% over the past year.
Elad Properties plans to make major changes to the Plaza Hotel. Part of it will remain a luxury hotel, while part will be converted to luxury condos. Elad Properties president and CEO Miki Naftali declined to comment about the company's plans for the hotel.
If Elad Properties decides to carry out the changes, it will have to overcome some major obstacles, including New York City's strict preservation codes, because the Plaza Hotel is a protected landmark.
If Tshuva wants to change the hotel's usage, he will have to preserve its architectural elements, which would raise the renovation's cost, possibly to a prohibitive level.
Ben Talal is also a shareholder in the Plaza Hotel's management company, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts (TSX:FHR).
Tshuva today denied media reports that he was negotiating a new management contract for the Plaza Hotel.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 15, 2004