The price of the pending sale has not been confirmed, but sources put the number in the $17-million range, which if correct would factor out to $68,000 per room. The current owner, Daniel Ahn, a Queens, NY-based developer, bought the building in late 1998 for $5.25 million and subsequently renovated it. The various parties, including hotel management, either declined or could not be reached for comment.
The property, which was built in 1925 and has had celebrity investors like late singer Johnny Cash, has had several ownership changes in the past couple of decades. Ahn bought it from an entity controlled by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which itself had acquired it in 1994 for less than $2 million from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., intending to turn it into a meditation and healthcare center. However, local officials did not permit those uses.
The FDIC came into possession of the Berkeley Carteret in 1991 through the federal bankruptcy court, overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of its previous owners, a group of local businessmen.
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