UPDATE ON THE PLAZA Auction postponed

Posted on 03/30/2016 | About Manhattan, New York

Reports say that the April 26 auction for the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan was cancelled after the holders of the mortgage reached a deal to give the borrowers more time to sell the property and pay back the loan.

Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben hold the mortgage on the five-star hotel and had scheduled a foreclosure auction next month, according to unnamed sources

The Reubens bought the loan from Bank of China Ltd. after a default by the property’s current majority owner, Sahara India Pariwar, last year. Sahara is controlled by Subrata Roy, who was imprisoned in India in early 2014 for defrauding investors.

Donald Trump bought the Plaza in 1988 and married his second wife, Marla Maples, there. 

Trump sold the hotel to a group including Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal of Saudi Arabia, who then sold it to Israel’s Elad Group, which converted some of the hotel rooms to condominiums. Bin-Talal retains a minority stake in the Plaza.

The Plaza’s hotel rooms, restaurants and retail space were be sold in a package with the Dream Downtown hotel, a trendy property in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

The two hotels serve as collateral for the Bank of China loan and are cross-collateralized with the Grosvenor House hotel in London. The Dream hotel is owned by Sahara’s Roy and Chatwal. The combined mortgages for the New York properties total about US $500 million.