Ben-Josef Group Holdings has acquired the Chatwal, a Midtown West hotel tangled in two long-running legal battles.
Ron Ben-Josef’s firm paid $53.2 million for the ground lease on the 76-room luxury hotel at 130 West 44th Street, property records show. The seller was an entity linked to the estate of the late Dubai businessman Iyer Vaidyanathan Narayan.
The 10-story, 75,000-square-foot building — home to the Chatwal and the Lambs Club restaurant — sits on land owned by the Metro New York District Church of the Nazarene. Narayan took over the ground lease in 2013 for $115 million, according to PincusCo, which first reported the sale.
The deal comes almost two years after a lender run by the London-based billionaire Reuben Brothers launched a non-judicial foreclosure on the hotel’s debt. The Reubens sought to seize the leasehold after Narayan allegedly defaulted on a $62.5 million loan. The debt was expected to swell to $79 million by the time of a scheduled auction in January 2024.
But the auction never happened, and the case wound its way through the state Supreme Court for more than two years. Narayan died in February 2024, according to court filings, and the case was recently settled.
Sant Singh Chatwal’s Hampshire Hotels redeveloped the 1905 Art Deco property and opened the Chatwal in 2010. In 2022, Hyatt took over the operations of the Chatwal, along with a portfolio of other hotel brands.
That same year, shipping company Astra Global sued Narayan, alleging that he secretly misappropriated $50 million from Astra’s accounts and used it to invest in the Chatwal and several other properties, according to Business Insider.
Representatives for Ben-Josef Group, Narayan’s estate and Reuben Brothers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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