Pakistan seeks new adviser for Roosevelt Hotel privatization after JLL exit

Pakistan is moving to appoint a new financial adviser for the privatization of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, a key foreign asset owned by the country’s national carrier, following the abrupt exit of global real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) from the process last month.

Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad told Nukta on Monday that the advertisement for hiring a replacement has already been published.

The Roosevelt Hotel, located in Manhattan and owned by Pakistan International Airlines Investment Limited, has been closed to the public since 2020 and has intermittently operated as a migrant shelter. Pakistan is not planning an outright sale of the iconic property but is instead pursuing a joint venture model aimed at maximizing long-term value, officials said.

Roosevelt Hotel, located in Mid-town East on Madison Avenue and East 45th Street Manhattan, in the U.S. state of New York, is amongst the elite hotels in Manhattan comprising of 19 stories and 1,025 rooms with covered area of 600,000 square feet.

“The new financial adviser will proceed with the same structure approved by the Privatization Commission and federal cabinet,” Schehzad said. “Their role will be to identify a suitable development partner for the project.”

The Privatization Commission has set a deadline of September 2 for companies or investment banks and other firms to submit bids to act as a financial advisor.

JLL resigned as the financial adviser in July, citing a conflict of interest after expressing interest in acquiring a stake in the hotel itself—a move that would have compromised its advisory role, Schehzad said.

“They even offered to return all the fees they had received,” he added, emphasizing that multiple parties remain interested in investing in the hotel.

“The transaction will be completed within this year as planned,” he said.

The privatization of the Roosevelt Hotel is part of a broader push by the Pakistani government to divest from loss-making state-owned enterprises under its $7 billion agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Roosevelt is considered one of Pakistan’s most valuable overseas properties.

Privatization of such strategic foreign assets has long been a politically sensitive issue in Pakistan, but the government has maintained that restructuring and partnership models offer the best path forward in light of mounting public debt and fiscal pressure.