London’s Grosvenor House Hotel Has a New Owner – Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp

Date: July 2017

Location: London, UK – Park Lane

Name: Grosvenor House, five star

Photographer: Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images

No. of Keys: 496 plus serious banqueting space (2000 pax), restaurants and bars

Seller: Good question! What a chequered ownership over the past few years!

Brothers David and Simon Reuben held the debt on the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House, which were cross-collateralised with another hotel, the Dream Downtown in New York.

The Reubens had bought the debt after a default by Sahara India Pariwar, controlled by Subrata Roy, who was imprisoned in India in 2014 for unpaid taxes!

Roy bought the hotel in December 2010 from Royal Bank of Scotland for £470m.

Buyer: Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., the U.S. real estate investor that recently bought a stake in New York’s Plaza Hotel, said that it acquired the Grosvenor House hotel in London, helping resolve an imbroglio that kept ownership of the famed properties in limbo for three years.

Price: Terms of the purchase, weren’t disclosed, but reported to be around £600m. The Grosvenor House acquisition “reflects a continued aggressive focus” on buying an additional 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of “global iconic assets” over the next two years, New York-based Ashkenazy said in a statement.

Price per Key: £120,968

THPT Comment: The Grosvenor House opened in 1929 on Park Lane in Mayfair, and was considered a Grande Dame hotel. It was the former London residence of the Dukes of Westminster, whose family name is Grosvenor. The hotel owed its existence to Albert Octavius Edwards, who conceived and built it, then presided over it as chairman for 10 years. A full history can be found at Wikipedia .The hotel was partly designed by Sir Edward Luytens. They had lease hassles way back and the hotel was not fully opened until 1957. At that time besides the 400 odd bedrooms and suites, there were also 150+ serviced apartments, now under the management of Jumeirah Hotels.

For many years, under the ownership and management of the iconic THF (Trust House Forte) company, the building also housed the head office where Lord Forte and son Sir Rocco Forte had their offices. The hotel, under a management contract with Marriott, as a JW Marriott,  since 2008, houses one of the largest ballrooms in Europe – The Great Room (originally an ice-rink) is the venue for may high-profiles events and dinners, catering for 2,000 people.

First Seen: Bloomberg