The Roosevelt Hotel site will most likely be sold by Pakistan International Airlines for a new office tower, sources said, despite recent chatter to the contrary.
The city emptied migrants from the building bounded by Madison and Vanderbilt avenues and East 45th and East 46th streets this month. Major developers have champed at the bit for a crack at the precious site, which can support a new tower of at least 1.3 million square feet — and up to 1.8 million square feet if a buyer were to buy nearby air rights and exploit zoning rules that allow floor-area bonuses in exchange for providing transit and public-space improvements.
Asked about rumors a replacement building might combine offices, residences and a new hotel, one astute real estate dealmaker not involved at the location scoffed:
“Get real. The value is in offices. The block is in the hottest commercial-development corridor in the country, from Grand Central Terminal north to East 57th Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue.
“You’ve already got One Vanderbilt and the new JPMorgan Chase headquarters. Two more giant buildings are planned on Park and another one on Madison. There are enough top-gun types of tenants looking for signature skyscrapers to go around.”
As for the likelihood of temporarily reopening the Roosevelt as a hotel, the same insider cackled, “Please — after three years of migrant occupation it would take a year to clean and disinfect.”
Meanwhile, insiders shot down reports last month that Shahal Khan’s Burkhan World Investments had proposed a joint-venture deal to develop the Roosevelt site with PIA.
The pitch was not apparently submitted to PIA, however, but to a Pakistani privatization commission which has certain approval rights over disbursement of government property.
“No offer was made to any official party with authority to sell the Roosevelt,” an insider told Realty Check.
Burkhan is a holder of diversified interests including in technology, mining, and finance. Its website’s real estate heading cites only a 2018 contract to buy the Plaza Hotel and doesn’t say that the deal fell through.
PIA tapped a JLL team led by Peter Riguardi to field offers for the Roosevelt site.
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