Pakistan thwarts JPMorgan’s bid to buy Roosevelt hotel: report

JPMorgan Chase’s aspirations to expand its Manhattan real estate empire have hit a roadblock at the Roosevelt Hotel, which the Government of Pakistan wants to knock down and replace with a high-rise development, the Financial Times reported.

The bank led by Jamie Dimon has for more than a year had designs on buying the Roosevelt, which neighbours JPMorgan’s new 60-storey Park Avenue skyscraper and two other buildings it also owns, according to people familiar with the matter. “JPM was aggressively chasing the Roosevelt hotel,” one of the people said. However, talks fizzled because of the Pakistani government’s preference to redevelop the site and retain an ownership stake as well as the loss of its real estate adviser.

For JPMorgan, acquiring the Roosevelt would be another addition to its growing campus in New York, where it has more than 17,500 employees.

America’s largest bank, which last year made more than $1bn a week in profits, spent billions of dollars rebuilding its new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, which opened last year. It is also renovating an existing office building at 383 Madison Avenue and is considering adding hotel rooms for employees at the 520,000 square feet 250 Park Avenue building it acquired in 2024, the FT has previously reported. Right next door to JPMorgan’s burgeoning property portfolio is the Roosevelt Hotel. Pakistan, however, has closed the door to a sale. The Pakistani government initially hired JLL to advise on the hotel’s future but the property group withdrew from the role.

Khurram Schehzad, an adviser to the finance ministry and member of the board of the Privatisation Commission, said the Government of Pakistan has “no plans to sell it outright” and that this was a “cabinet decision”.