Pierre Hotel residents fight 'secret deal' that would cost them their homes

High-profile residents of a Manhattan landmark hotel are furious after an alleged secret deal to sell the building, which if successful, would lead to their eviction.

Tory Burch, an American fashion designer and businesswoman, last week filed legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York against 795 Fifth Avenue Corporation, the owners of Pierre Hotel.

The hotel is an icon of the Manhattan skyline and was once where Hollywood icons Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant separately called home. Grant lived there for 12 years.

It has also featured in films such as Scent of a Woman and Ocean’s 8.

Burch, the lead petitioner and seven other residents, are calling on the court to demand Pierre’s owners provide them with the corporate books and records relating to a proposed US$2 billion ($3 billion) sale of the hotel, court documents state.

Under terms of the proposed sale, all residential shareholders would be evicted within a year of a deal closing.

“Four directors of the Board of Directors of the Corporation have been singularly determined to sell the Pierre to an undisclosed buyer for several months,” the residents stated in the court documents.

“The terms of the contemplated deal with this unknown buyer will require the permanent eviction of all shareholder-residents of the Pierre.”

The document states many of the shareholders have lived in their homes within the Pierre for decades, with some residents now in their 80s and 90s.

The residents claim Pierre’s owners have kept them in the dark and “repeatedly stonewalled” them.

They claim the owners are refusing to provide basic information about the buyer, the exclusivity agreement or the negotiations.

Specifically, they state they have “twice demanded access to the corporation’s books and records, which the corporation has denied”.

They also claim Pierre’s owners are ignoring a “superior competing offer” from Taj Hotels, the current hotel operator. 

Taj Hotels, an Indian luxury hotel chain, has managed the day-to-day operations of the Pierre Hotel since 2005.

The petitioners say the Taj Hotels offer permits residents to keep their homes.

In 2023, the hotel’s board of directors began considering “strategic opportunities” for a renovation of the Pierre Hotel.

Despite Taj Hotels completing a substantiation renovation of the building, the building required further repair – which meant further investment.

It was at this point, the owners of the Pierre informed shareholders that they were negotiating a lease renewal with Taj Hotels that would require Taj to make further significant investments in the building.

“The Board also claimed to have approached Taj’s competitors to identify an alternative operator of the hotel who would assume responsibility for the routine maintenance of the building, if Taj did not agree,” the documents stated.

“By mid-2025, the Board began to change course and focus single-mindedly on the pursuit of a sale of the entire building.”

The residents claim a report was commissioned by a select group of Pierre’s owners to assess the sale of the required repairs. 

The report said repairs could cost in excess of $300 million ($464 million), leaving some board members to suggest the only way forward was to sell the Pierre Hotel.

Last month, the petitioners heard rumours that the board was negotiating a term sheet for the sale with an unidentified buyer. The petitioners heard this sale would mean eviction.

In early September this year, three shareholders wrote to the Pierre board requesting more information about the term sheet. They claim the board ignored these letters.

Then, at its annual shareholder meeting on September 17, the Pierre board announced it was not only considering a term sheet – it had already executed one with a company called Sabre Park Avenue LLC.

Sabre is owned by the Khashoggi Holdings company.

The petitioners claim the term sheet also indicated the “newly acquired hotel will form part of the Dorchester Collection hotel group”. 

They claim it also states a “$2-billion sale” would require all existing residents to “vacate their properties within a year of the sale’s closing and provides that any residents who fail to do so will forfeit their share of the proceeds”.

The petitioners have contacted the board multiple times in the last month requesting to see the corporate books and records for the Pierre Hotel. 

They claim their requests have been denied each time.

They are now calling on the courts to intervene.

The lawsuit has been picked up by multiple media organisations in the US, specifically New York.

Michael C Keats, a lawyer for the Pierre board, told The New York Post the legal case is just hot air.

“The Board remains committed to allowing shareholders to understand and vote on options for the Pierre,” Keats told The Post.