Houston’s Most Famous Billionaire Makes a Massive New York Purchase

It’s election day and Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta is making major waves. No, Fertitta’s not plotting a future run for the White House. That’s for later (kidding, Fertitta has told PaperCity he has no designs on the Oval Office even if people in New York City have been stopping him on the street and asking him about it ever since his new reality TV show debuted last March).

No, on this election day, it’s all about Manhattan — and a major purchase worthy of Fertitta’s giant-sized vision.

Fertitta’s Landry’s Inc. is buying fancy New York restaurant empire BR Guest for an undisclosed purchase price. BR Guest owns 15 New York restaurants, including the popular hotspots Dos Caminos and Strip House, and a few restaurants in New Jersey and Las Vegas. All those restaurants now join Fertitta’s ever-expanding restaurant empire, which already measured in at more than three dozen major restaurant chain brands strong.

In total, Landry’s owns more than 500 individual restaurants. This new deal gives Fertitta’s company several thousand more seats in Manhattan and a firmer hold in one of the U.S.’s most lucrative high-end restaurant markets.

The major buy comes just a few weeks before Fertitta’s Billion Dollar Buyer returns for its second season on CNBC, Nov. 22. Even when he is filming, Fertitta is always working on several deals that dwarf anything shown on the show. On TV, Fertitta gives little businesses the chance of a lifetime. In real life, he pulls off mega deals.

Scooping up BR Guest from Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group — which bought it for $150 million back in 2007 — gives Houston’s most recognizable business tycoon an increased presence in New York City. Fertitta already has an ultra-plush crash pad in SoHo and is frequently in the city for business and TV dealings.

Fertitta will keep Landry’s headquartered in Houston, but his world is growing. For more on Tilman’s World, read PaperCity‘s exclusive profile of Fertitta that takes you behind the scenes with one-on-one interviews and inside looks.

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