Pakistan has signed a deal with the US government to jointly redevelop New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, allowing Islamabad to unlock the value of one of its most valuable foreign investments, according to documents seen by Reuters and two sources.
The 100-year-old hotel, owned by Pakistan’s national airline, has been closed since 2020 and is the centerpiece of Islamabad’s IMF-backed asset restructuring, which the government previously estimated could be worth more than $1 billion.
Two sources told Reuters the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday after Pakistan’s cabinet approved the process. They were not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.
Deepening economic relations
Reuters has seen a Cabinet summary document that says the prime minister approved the proposal by authorizing the Defense Ministry to sign a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the US General Services Administration (GSA) as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral and trade ties.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense and Privatization Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The White House and the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also did not respond to requests for comment.
The agreement comes as Pakistan deepens its economic engagement with the US government, including US funding for the Reko Diq copper-gold mining project in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which is partly owned by Pakistan’s Barrick Resources.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is currently in Washington to attend the first Peace Commission meeting.
A memorandum of understanding seen by Reuters said the project would be “promoted by the U.S. General Services Administration and Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense” and would include “renovation, operation, maintenance, and redevelopment” of real estate near Grand Central Terminal.
Financial terms were not specified.
The U.S. General Services Administration primarily manages the procurement of federal property and U.S. government agencies, and its publicly stated mission generally does not include the commercial redevelopment of foreign national assets. It was not immediately clear under what authority the agency would pursue the project.
(Reporting by Ariva Shahid; Editing by Y.P. Rajesh and David Holmes)
