By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh

Marriott International has filed a $2.6 million lawsuit against one of its franchise hotels in Queens, for turning into a migrant shelter.

As reported by the NY Post, the hotel chain alleges that the owners of the Pride Hotel in Jamaica had a 2015 contract with Marriott to operate a dual-branded Aloft and Element hotel at the 149-03 Archer Avenue hotel. The complaint filed last week in federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the hotel owner broke the agreement and thus forfeited the right to use Marriott branding. Pride Hospitality Group made a “lucrative” agreement with the city to house migrants and asylum seekers “just months before” its long-awaited Nov. 1 opening—following eight years of construction, the lawsuit alleges.

The 18-story hotel, featuring 283 units in close proximity to John F. Kennedy International Airport, was confirmed as being operating as a migrant shelter as of at least August 22, 2023. Despite this, Pride Hotel continued utilizing Marriott’s signage and proprietary marks, per the suit. Pride Hotel sent Marriott a letter proposing an agreement to use the hotels for migrant housing. Marriott replied with a list of requirements that would need to be met in order to consider the change, but it didn’t receive any reply for two months— and migrants continued to live on site, the suit alleges. Per the Post, additionally, during that time the hotel did not send any of the fees required by the franchise agreement to Marriot, the suit maintains.

Marriott claims it sent Pride notices of default and reached out to try to resolve the issue in November and December, but to no avail, and finally terminated the agreement on March 18.

Having Marriott signage on a migrant hotel has “caused and will continue to cause significant harm to Marriott,” the suit claims. In addition, Marriott says it would be difficult for it to reenter the lucrative Jamaica market serving JFK, as it’s “already saturated with existing hotels.”

Pride Hotel did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.

New York City’s migrant crisis has put the city in desperate need of housing, leading it to pay hotels and fill their rooms with illegal migrants seeking shelter from the Southern borders. In April, the Post reported that the city’s Department of Homeless

Services awarded a total of roughly $17 million in new contracts to convert two more hotels into new migrant shelters: one at the former Ramada Wyndham at 164-40 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica and the other at the site of the former Marriott Courtyard at 90-10 Ditmars Blvd in East Elmhurst, near the Grand Central Parkway and LaGuardia Airport. Countless other hotels have similarly been tapped. Mayor Eric Adams has said the city’s tab to house and care for the flood of migrants who have entered since spring 2022 may reach $4.3 billion by the end of 2024. Over the past year, over 55,300 people illegally crossed the Mexico-US border as of April 16, claimed asylum and were processed to receive city services, including housing at city-financed shelters. Overall, the city has opened a whopping 103 emergency shelters and eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers to handle the influx of migrants.