Pakistan rents out Roosevelt Hotel to New York for US$220 million

PAKISTAN has rented out its iconic Roosevelt Hotel to the New York City government for three years, helping the cash-strapped country earn US$220 million from the deal. 

The New York administration will pay a rent of as much as US$210 for each of the 1,025 rooms of the century-old hotel owned by state-run Pakistan International Airlines Corp, Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Sunday.

The hotel had to be shut due to financial losses after the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The New York city government will now use it for “immigrant housing business,” Pakistan’s finance ministry said in a statement last month. 

The development comes when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is trying for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid a default amid the nation’s depleting foreign exchange reserves.

Pakistan was spending US$25 million a year in taxes and salaries even after the hotel was shut. The South Asian nation expects the deal will help it clear all its liabilities, including reconciliation of US$66 million demanded by the hotel’s union.

Pakistan has been trying to turn around its loss making national flag-carrier for decades that is afloat only because of regular government bailouts. In July 2020 it had planned to hire a financial adviser to start the process to redevelop the hotel. 

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Earlier, Deloitte had recommended the best use of the property would be to redevelop the site into a mixed use through a joint venture. BLOOMBERG