Taj Hotels to manage Four Season’s Pierre

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New York: Four Seasons Hotels Inc., the world’s largest manager of luxury hotels, will stop operating the money-losing Pierre in New York after its negotiations to revise the lease failed. Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces will take over Pierre’s management.

The 75-year-old Pierre, which was once owned by US oil billionaire John Paul Getty, will be operated as a part of the Mumbai-based Taj chain, a unit of Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company.

The change is expected at the end of the month, Toronto-based Four Seasons said on Saturday. Four Seasons wanted better contract terms from Pierre owner 795 Fifth Avenue Corp. after the hotel had a loss of $4.2 million last year.

Four Seasons is selling hotels and exiting leases to focus on its management business. It had run the Pierre, situated on Fifth Avenue near Grand Army Plaza.

“Given that the Pierre had generated negative (earnings) of approximately $10 million annually, this is a clear positive for Four Seasons,” CIBC World Markets analyst David Katz wrote.