"In its eighty-plus years, the Plaza has had seven owners. The United States Realty and Improvement Company, whose construction subsidiary built it, owned it until 1943. then ran it until 1953. The Boston industrialist owned it up to 1958; then , a New York lawyer and realty investor, had it fleetingly before Sonnabend repurchased it. The ... took over the hotel in 1975 ... A partnership made of the of , and the bought it in January 1988 for about $300 million but barely had time to take a get-acquainted tour of the place before agreeing to sell it for a quick and handsome profit to the casino operator and real estate wheeler-dealer , who paid a rather exorbitant $390 million."