Richard Born

Owner, BD Hotels

A little bit about Richard…

In 1986 Richard Born left his medical residency and partnered with Ira Drukier to form BD Hotels, a real estate development and hotel operation company.  Currently, BD has ownership interests in several billion dollars worth of properties, most of which is debt free or significantly under leveraged. They have slowly built their portfolio through the acquisition and improvement of well-located undervalued buildings.  Currently, they own and operate 28 hotels with over 5000 rooms.  Born and Drukier have developed small luxury hotels, like The Bowery and The Greenwich, and large commercial hotels, such as The Wellington and The Watson. More recently, BD has experimented with pushing the envelope of traditional hotels. In 2007 they opened the first Pod Hotel where the average room size is 120 square feet.  There are currently 4 Pods operating in New York, with a total of 1700 rooms.  Their latest project is the restoration of the historic, and infamous, Chelsea Hotel, which they expect to open in late 2021.