Joseph Chetrit $190M acquisition is not very clean. After four long months of speculations, it has been announced that Chetrit paid $190M for Hotel Carter better known as the dirtiest hotel in America. After signing the $190M check for the establishment, Joseph Chetrit, a wealthy Jewish developer is expected to spend an additional $125M to renovate the neglected piece of real state.
Joseph Chetrit $190M purchase has been revealed. For several months, there was a major bidding war going on between 25 individual buyers and groups interested in buying Hotel Carter in New York.
The Hotel Carter, which is located just steps from Times Square on West 43rd Street is famous for two things.
First, the hotel has an amazing view of the Big Apple. And secondly, it landed on the top spot of America’s dirtiest hotels list three times in a row. The list was published by TripAdvisor Inc.
In 2012, TripAdvisor Inc stopped compiling the list of dirty hotels, but reviews on the internet about the New York hotel indicate that it is still a hellhole.
Some of the clients of the hotel said that it was filthy with mold on the ceiling and the infrastructure was falling apart.
Other guests claimed that they had no hot water for the duration of their stay in the nasty and dangerous hotel that costs more than $200 per night.
Few claimed that they had a nightmarish experience at the hotel because it was infested with insects like cockroaches, bedbugs and the carpet contained strange odors.
While another reviewer explained that the service was terrible because the rooms are cleaned every other day and he discovered a used soap waiting for him in the bathroom.
So, why did Mr Joseph Chetrit and his partner (it is rumored that he partnered once more with Belgium real estate mogul David Bistricer) spend $190M on a dilapidated 600-room hotel?
Because Chetrit has made billions in America, Morocco and Asia buying “low in a downturn and selling high later” after major renovations.
The Chetrit Group purchased a building for $290 million in New York, removed everything, fixed it and in 2011 it was sold for $500 million.
Joseph Chetrit who is an importer/exporter has plans to do the same with the dirtiest hotel in America.
Chetrit who has had couple of run ins with the law and built his fortune in the family’s textile business will be spending over $125 million to turn the Carter into a five-star luxury hotel.
He will patiently wait and in few years, he will sell it for at least half a billion dollars.
The hotel was not always nasty and unsafe, when it was built in the 1930s, it was called the Hotel Dixie and it was a beautiful facility.
But several murders took place at the hotel and it was flagged with dozens of code violations through out the years, which lead the owner (the seller whose name has not been revealed is represented by Lawrence Wolfe) to turn his back on the property.
Joseph Chetrit $190M purchase is nothing big for him, just last year he acquired the Sony building in New York for $1.1 billion with his partner David Bistricer.
Chetrit will convert the former Sony headquarters into fancy condominiums, sell them and make a hefty profit.
Joseph Chetrit $190M acquisition is indeed insignificant in his impressive portfolio, because in 2004 he purchased the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago for $840 million and 5 years later, he changed the name to the Willis Tower.
What do you think of this investment? Is it worth it? Would you stay at the Hotel Carter?
