Hotel Family Lays Out a Future

New York’s Denihan family has a reputation in the real-estate world for owning and managing upscale boutique hotels like the Surrey on the Upper East Side and the Benjamin in Midtown.

What is less known is the behind-the-scenes drama that took place over the years within the Denihan dynasty involving poor transition planning, family buyouts and a huge debt burden that forced some family members to consider a bankruptcy filing during...