The city’s final hotel serving as an emergency shelter for migrants — The Row Hotel on 8th Avenue between W44th and W45th Streets — is set to close in the coming months, marking what Mayor Eric Adams calls “another major milestone” in managing the humanitarian crisis that has reshaped New York, and Hell’s Kitchen, over the past three years.

“Three years ago, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers began streaming into our city every week — and the Adams administration stepped up,” the mayor said in a statement announcing the closure. “In the coming months, we are proud to share that we will be closing another site — the Row Hotel, the last hotel in the city’s emergency shelter system — marking yet another major milestone in our administration’s recovery from this international humanitarian crisis.”

The City first leased the 1,331-room hotel  — at a reported $5.13 million per month — in October 2022, as part of a sweeping effort to provide temporary housing for newly arrived asylum seekers. At its peak, a total of seven hotels in Hell’s Kitchen were converted into emergency housing for migrants, with the two largest being The Watson (440 W57th Street) and The Row. 

The Hotel Merit on W46th Street has since returned to the tourist market, while The Watson closed as a shelter earlier this year amid plans by its owners to potentially convert the property into apartments. The Mayor’s Office has confirmed that the remaining four hotels previously used as emergency migrant shelters in the neighborhood — including the Skyline and Washington Jefferson — are now operating as mixed-population Department of Homeless Services shelters.

At its peak, The Row was one of more than 100 hotels citywide adapted into emergency housing for migrants. Its closure follows the shuttering of 64 other emergency sites, according to City Hall, as the number of migrants in the shelter system declines.

The Row’s latest chapter is just one turn in its long history. Opened on February 1, 1928, as the Hotel Lincoln, the 27-story building was designed by Schwartz & Gross with consulting architect Herbert J Krapp, and developed by brothers Henry and Irwin Chanin alongside several nearby theaters. Over the decades, it has operated under a series of names — including the Hotel Manhattan, Royal Manhattan and Milford Plaza — each tied to major renovations and shifts in the city’s hospitality industry.

Ownership has also changed hands frequently, with notable transactions including the Milstein family’s purchase and reopening in 1980, a 2011 acquisition by Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings, and the 2013 sale of the ground lease to David Werner and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management for $325 million. Most recently, Highgate acquired Werner’s interest in 2024 for roughly $350 million, gaining full control of the property.

We reached out to Highgate Holdings about their planned future use of the property, but had not received a response by time of publication. We will update the story if more information becomes available.

This is required as the ITC holding dates back to the early 1900s, BAT chief executive Tadeu Marroco told analysts on an earnings call last week.

Unlocking Shares
“Sometimes things take longer for us to be able to unlock those shares, get the right approvals in the right forums,” he had said. “In this case, it’s the central bank in India, in order to be able to transact.”

Once this comes through, BAT will embark on selling the holding as it will help the company return to the corridor of 2-2.5x adjusted net debt/ebitda by the end of 2026. “We intend to use the proceeds of the hotel to deleverage further the company,” he said.

The hotels business was demerged from ITC in January. Under the plan, ITC shareholders hold 60% of the unit with the rest owned directly by ITC. As a result, BAT owns 15.29% in ITC Hotels as a foreign direct investment, making it the largest public shareholder after ITC’s promoter holding of 39.87%, as per the shareholding pattern at the end of June.

As of June, ITC Hotels had a portfolio of over 200 hotels-143 operational and 58 in the pipeline.

Analysts tracking the company said RBI’s approval is required since this deal involves a foreign company selling its shares in an Indian company and taking the money out of India. They added that it could also have something to do with ITC being a tobacco company and FDI not being allowed in the segment. Marroco said BAT wants to divest the stake as it “strategically” doesn’t want to be in the hotel business.

Capital Flexibility

BAT recently reduced its holding in ITC through two block deals after receiving RBI approval-in February last year (3.5%) and May this year (2.5%)-lowering its holding in the cigarette-to-FMCG major to 22.93% from 29%.

Marroco said in the latest earnings release that BAT’s continued strong cash conversion and the recent partial monetisation of its ITC stake has enhanced its capital flexibility. The company received 1.1 billion from the May stake sale, which increased its share buyback for 2025 from 0.9 billion to 1.1 billion.

BAT declared that as part of the demerger accounting of ITC Hotels, ITC recognised the excess of the fair value over the carrying value of the hotels business as an adjusting item. BAT’s share of this adjusted gain amounted to 333 million (net of tax), it said in the earnings release.