Steve Witkoff Strikes U.S.-Pakistan Deal To Redevelop Manhattan Hotel
Pakistan and the United States have reached an agreement to jointly redevelop the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, a more than 1,000-room property near Grand Central Terminal that for two years operated as the city's main intake shelter for international migrants.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance announced the deal in a social media post Thursday. It said that the General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate arm, had completed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan that was signed by GSA Administrator Edward Forst and Pakistani Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb.
The deal is unusual, as the U.S. government has no involvement or financial interest in the property. It agreed to partner with Pakistan on a “strategic economic initiative” to operate, maintain, renovate and redevelop the property at 45 E. 45th St.
The agreement was “negotiated and stewarded” by special envoy to the Trump administration Steve Witkoff, according to the Pakistani government.
The hotel, which opened in the 1920s, is owned by Pakistan International Airlines, in which the government of Pakistan has a minority stake.
The Roosevelt shut down in 2020. It was leased to New York City for $220M in 2023 to process and house migrants — thousands of whom were arriving in the city each day at the time — while remaining under the ownership of PIA. That lease was canceled at the beginning of 2025 as the migrant crisis abated.
PIA hired JLL in 2024 to market the building as a redevelopment play, but the brokerage resigned from that assignment last year, citing client conflicts of interest, Reuters reported. Industry insiders estimated the property could be worth $1B because of its proximity to the hottest office market in the country, Manhattan's Plaza District.
The Pakistani Finance Ministry didn't say what the scope of the renovation and/or redevelopment would be, but it said the MOU “establishes a structured, time-bound framework for joint evaluation of the technical, commercial, and economic parameters of cooperation.”
“Given the Roosevelt Hotel’s prime Manhattan location and the complexity of New York zoning and municipal processes, institutional coordination aims to reduce execution risk, enhance regulatory clarity, and maximize transaction value,” the post says.
Partnering with a foreign-held private company on a privately owned hotel is an unusual move for the GSA, which oversees the federal government’s 360M SF portfolio of owned and leased property and has been focused on slashing costs.
A GSA spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.
Witkoff is the founder of development and investment firm The Witkoff Group, with holdings in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami and West Palm Beach. After his appointment to his White House post, which involves negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine, he sold a $120M interest in the company, which is now being run by his son Alex Witkoff.
