According to a recent news Qatar has agreed to purchase the NewYorkPlaza Hotel, for around $600 million which is one of the prime buildings of New York.
“Qatar’s state-owned Katara Holding is buying full ownership of the hotel, including a 75 percent stake from Indian business group Sahara India Pariwar”, said one of our sources. As the deal was not public. So the source wishes to be unidentified.
Over the past decades, Qatar has been purchasing a lot of luxury properties and hotels to multiply and expand the wealth it earns from gas and oil exports.
Qatar, besides being a big investor in luxury properties is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and already owns some of the prime and landmark hotels in London such as The Savoy and The Connaught.
The wealth fund of Qatar which is also known as the Qatar Investment Authority has made huge investments in Western companies such as Volkswagen and Glencore.
Besides this the momentum of Qatar’s overseas investment had been expected to slow down from a while due to a crisis in the Gulf as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain imposed allegations on Doha for supporting terrorism. While Qatar denying the allegations says that this is just an attempt to
Qatar denies the allegations and says the economic boycott is an attempt to reduce its power.
Besides Qatar is used to with large scale investments with investing dozens of billions of dollars into its economy but the New York Plaza Hotel deal is as far the biggest investment made by Qatar in the Western property market.
As far as recalling the history of this premium hotel in New York,Trump bought the Plaza in 1988 but more than two decades ago due to a bankruptcy proceeding sold it to a group of investors including Saudi businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Prince Alwaleed had remained a minority shareholder in the hotel.
“The Plaza has hosted guests including the Beatles and Marlene Dietrich, who performed there. It was also the site of Trump’s marriage to Marla Maples in 1993. The hotel has featured in movies including the 1959 American thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, “North by Northwest”; the 1991 drama “Scent of a Woman” starring Al Pacino; and the 1990 gangster drama “The King of New York” with Christopher Walken”, said one of our sources.