Pakistan mulls ‘razing Roosevelt Hotel to build skyscraper’

• Pakistan considering options for hotel to meet IMF commitments.
• Govt keen on joint venture seeking equity: PM’s privatisation adviser.
• “We will have clarity on this in the next few months,” says M Ali.

NEW YORK: Pakistan is considering options for the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as part of the South Asian nation’s efforts to meet its commitments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The News reported on Sunday citing the Bloomberg.

One of the options is to raze the storied landmark and build a skyscraper in its place, said Muhammad Ali, adviser to the prime minister on privatisation.

The government is keen on a joint venture where Pakistan will contribute the land and the partner will bring in the equity, he told Bloomberg in Islamabad. The other option is to retain the hotel if it makes economic sense, he said.

Once a historic hotel owned by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), it closed during the pandemic, briefly housed migrants, and has since been shuttered.

“We will have clarity on this in the next few months after finalisation of the JV partner and market sounding,” Ali said. The adviser is hopeful that the national carrier will be sold by November 2025.

He said the groups interested in buying PIA are among the largest business groups in the country and have the capacity to run it. Ali estimated that an investment of about half-a-billion dollars would be needed to turn the airline around.

Pakistan is in the process of appointing advisers for the hotel transaction, dubbed by some as “the new Ellis Island” for its historical role as a migrant intake point.

The government will finalise a new adviser later in October 2025 after bids from seven groups, including Citigroup Inc, CBRE Group Inc, and Savills PLC.