Peter Riguardi

Last August, JLL’s Peter Riguardi received a phone call.

“Hey,” the caller said (according to Riguardi), “I heard you represent Blackstone. I think the Pakistani government wants to sell the Roosevelt Hotel.”

“I didn’t believe it,” Riguardi told Commercial Observer. Nevertheless it was true, and so began the most unusual assignment of Riguardi’s career culminating in a 22-hour trip to Islamabad to seal the deal on Feb. 1.

After a flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi, and a 3.5-hour connection to Islamabad, he arrived in Pakistan’s capital at 4 in the morning where he was met by government personnel and escorted to his hotel, and then to government offices to finalize the agreement and strategy. (“I’ve never seen security like that,” said Riguardi, who has been to the White House before.)

Riguardi would leave the next day at 2 a.m., after a sumptuous dinner with his hosts, with one of the more intriguing assignments in New York real estate.

“We think it’s the greatest development site available,” Riguardi said. There’s potential to build as much as 1.7 million square feet of mixed-use real estate, including hotel and office. Riguardi expects to go out with the offering around Memorial Day, and the final deal will no doubt be well above the billion dollar mark.

Of course, this is not the only showstopper to expect from Riguardi. He renewed Barclays in its colossal 1.1 million-square-foot space at 745 Seventh Avenue, and did deals for BlackRock, HSBC and J.P. Morgan Chase over the last 18 months — all while being the executive point person for one of the New York area’s more active and influential brokerages.

Still, we eagerly await what happens with the Roosevelt Hotel. But we know Riguardi will have an excellent 2024.