Up for Auction: The Legendary Plaza Hotel in New York

New York City
Photo by Freeimages.com/Sean Llewellyn

What would Eloise think? According to multiple news reports, The Plaza Hotel is going up for auction next month. Since it first opened in 1907 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South in Manhattan, the legendary hotel has changed ownership multiple times (Donald Trump and Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal of Saudi Arabia number among these).

After two years of uncertainty about the hotel’s ownership, Bloomberg reports that the billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben, who currently hold the mortgage on the property, have scheduled a foreclosure auction for April 26, after the hotel's 75 per cent owner Sahara India Pariwar defaulted on loan agreements.

Now the Internet rumor mill is churning: could The Plaza fetch up to $1 billion? The sale will include the hotel’s 282 guest rooms, the restaurants, and retail space. It will be sold in a package that includes the Dream Downtown hotel, located near the High Line in Chelsea.