With rooms going for $500 a night and up, The Chatwal hotel near Times Square sure seems to be making someone a profit.
Yet it has not paid a dime in property taxes over the past five years, taking advantage of the city’s exemption for nonprofits, The Post has learned.
The posh hotel, which boasts 400-thread-count Frette linens, Asprey toiletries and minibars “curated” by celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian, once housed a church, and the city never canceled its house-of-worship tax exemption.
Sant Singh Chatwal, the high-flying owner, never fessed up to the city that the landmark West 44th Street building was no longer used for a charitable purpose.
The 10-story hotel’s loophole has cost city coffers $2 million. And the city has lost millions more since 2007, when it stopped requiring yearly renewals of tax exemptions for churches, synagogues, schools and other nonprofits.
The Finance Department admitted the lapse to The Post in September and said it would immediately notify some 12,000 property owners to submit proof of their eligibility for the break. So far, 68 owners will have their exemptions revoked, and another 36 will have their exemptions reduced.
Chatwal, a Democratic donor and friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, appears to be among the biggest unqualified beneficiaries of the tax break, saving $1.2 million this year alone, city records show.