A Manhattan man has been indicted for allegedly attempting to steal the deed for the iconic New Yorker Hotel in Midtown.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged Mickey Barreto, 48, with a yearslong conspiracy to transfer ownership of the hotel, known for its prominent red rooftop sign and sometimes called the “Grand Old Lady,” to himself. He has been charged with 14 counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a felony, and 10 counts of second-degree criminal contempt.
“As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the City’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” said Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. “We will not tolerate manipulation of our city’s property records by those who seek to scam the system for personal gain.”
Bragg says Barreto’s alleged scheme first started in 2018, when Barreto checked into a room at the hotel, located at 8th Avenue and 34th Street, for a single night. After his request the next day to sign a lease for the room was rebuffed by the hotel, which asked him to leave and chucked his belongings, Barreto filed a lawsuit in housing court alleging he was wrongfully evicted. A judge agreed with him and allowed him to stay in his room at the New Yorker.
By May of the following year, Bragg alleges Barreto first uploaded fake documents to the Department of Finance’s online property registration portal, ACRIS, including a fake deed purporting to transfer ownership of the New Yorker to himself from the real owner. The real owner is the Unification Church of the United States, which purchased the hotel and made it its headquarters in the 1970s. The church’s members follow the teachings of founder Sun Myung Moon, whom they believe is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Barreto then began holding himself out as the real owner of the hotel, Bragg says. He allegedly demanded rent from another tenant, registered the hotel under his name with the Department of Environmental Protection, and attempted to get the hotel’s bank to transfer its accounts to him. He also tried to get the hotel’s franchise transferred to his name by the franchisor, Wyndham Hotels.
The Unification Church ultimately sued Barreto successfully, with a judge ordering him to stop making false filings or presenting himself as the hotel’s owner. Barreto’s attempts at appeal failed, but as recently as September of 2023 he was still allegedly filing bogus deeds into ACRIS claiming ownership of the hotel.
The 42-story New Yorker, designed by Sugarman & Berger in the Art Deco style, first opened in 1930 and has seen a colorful history in the near-century since. Despite its popularity and opulence, it consistently lost money in the early years and was purchased by Hilton in the 1950s. It was sold again and passed through a hodgepodge of owners before being reacquired by Hilton, who eventually tried to sell the hotel to a developer who wanted to convert it into a hospital. It closed its doors in 1972.
After the hospital plan failed, Moon’s religious movement purchased the hotel from Hilton in 1976 and subsequently converted it into its World Mission Center, with the space renovated and rooms reserved for use by church members.
Facing financial pressures, the Unification Church ultimately opted to partially restore the property as a hotel in the 1990s, while renting other floors as commercial office space. By the time Wyndham took over the franchise rights in 2014, the hotel had over 1,000 rooms, and the chain has opted to market the hotel as a throwback to its Jazz Age glory days.
