Congress Plaza Hotel

Fact Sheet: Hotel Ownership

1. The Congress Plaza Hotel was built in 1893 to host visitors to the Columbia World’s Exposition. In 1987, the Pick family sold the hotel for $14 million to a limited partnership called 520 S. Michigan Avenue Associates. The partnership included New York investors Albert Nasser and Ivor Braka. ¹ Owner’s representative Shlomo Nahmias, an associate of Nasser, resides in the Congress Hotel.

2. The purchase was financed with a $12 million mortgage from Republic Bank of New York.²  In 1991, the mortgage was assigned to Garland Business Corp., a Panamanian corporation controlled by Albert Nasser’s first cousin, Albert Nasser Shayo, who lives in Argentina.³ In 1994, the mortgage was assigned to Nyrel Holdings, a British Virgin Islands international corporation that is also controlled by Albert Nasser Shayo.⁴ As of 1999, the hotel’s debt to Nyrel totaled $48.2 million.⁵

3. Albert Nasser is the chairman of 520 S. Michigan Avenue Associates, and owned a majority stake in the hotel when it reorganized in 1998. Nasser was born in Syria in 1926. He maintains two residences, one in Geneva, Switzerland, and one on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Nasser is a principal in several companies that manufacture, import and distribute children’s clothing, swimwear and undergarments for sale in the US.  These products have been produced in Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Jordan Egypt, Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua.⁶

4. One of Nasser’s apparel entities, Gelmart Industries, claims to be the world’s largest privately-held manufacturer of ladies undergarments, and has provided products to Wal-Mart, KMart Maidenform, Jockey and Frederick’s of Hollywood. In 2004, UNITE HERE investigated and reported on alleged abusive working conditions at Gelmart’s network of subcontractors in the Philippines.

5. Ivor Braka, another investor in 520 S. Michigan Ave. Associates, is a principal of New York-based US Realty and Investment Co. and chairman of Centurian Management. Braka’s real estate interests include retail and office properties in New York, New Jersey and Wisconsin, and in downtown Chicago at 122 and 332 S. Michigan (a few blocks up from the Congress Hotel).

6. Shlomo Nahmias is the owner’s representative and president of 520 S. Michigan Avenue Corp. Shlomo resides in the hotel with his wife, Sarah, and their dog, Sparky. As owner’s representative, Shlomo is responsible for overseeing every aspect of the hotel ownership including finance, marketing, management and accounting, although he took his assignment at the Congress with no prior hotel experience in 1995. Shlomo met Albert Nasser in the mid-1960s. Shlomo’s country of origin is Israel. He first came to the US in 1968, and has lived in and out of the country until 1978, when he moved here permanently.⁷