Taking a Closer Look the Hotels of Kievskaya Ploshchad
My business partner and I are thrilled to be adding another two hotels to the hospitality portfolio of our company, Kievskaya Ploshchad. One of the hotels, due to open in 2023, is located near Zaryadye Park and the Kremlin. The second is located on New Arbat Street and will be housed in what is known as one of the historic “book houses.” The construction of the hotels is scheduled to begin next year. We decided that both new facilities will be managed by the French hospitality firm, AccorHotels. We selected AccorHotels after negotiating with Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, who is now the head of the company’s board of directors.
Maintaining Historic Integrity
The two buildings have been our assets since 2016 and both will be renovated. The Varvarka Street building was previously occupied by an insurance company. Because the buildings are historic, all renovations have to organically match the Zaryadye area’s style. In fact, the area is protected by UNESCO as a heritage site. Some of the building’s historic integrity is still intact and, as such, there are still remnants of the apartments built for the Persic family in the early 1900s by Nikolai Zherikhov, an eminent architect of the time.
Meticulous Reconstruction of the Zaryadye Hotel
The original building was designed by the architect Alexander Ivanov and the style was mainly classic Art Nouveau featuring several stucco anchors created to match the message the insurance company hoped to convey. In the 1920s, the building was radically changed to look more constructivist. After acquiring it, we decided to involve some of the top designers to once again restore the building to its former glory, based on drawings of apartment buildings of the 20th century. The façade of the building will match the existing buildings around Zaryadye, including some of our other projects like the Voskhod restaurant and the gastronomic center in the park. Once it is completed, the hotel on Varvarka Street will boast close to 150 rooms and over 50 apartments and it will be run under the Raffles luxury brand.
Ideas for New Arbat Street
Our plans for the New Arbat Street hotel are completely different from the Zaryadye hotel. Instead of a luxury destination, this hotel will be more suited to the price range of four-star hotels. Again, AccorHotels will facilitate the running of the hotel. The company already represents several similar hotels throughout Russia. One of their biggest strengths is to skillfully combine hotels of different stars in the same building. This may be what’s in store for the “book house” hotel in the future. Part of the building may be converted into apartments run under the Adagio brand. Another possibility is to develop the facility into a multifunctional one that could include offices.
Originally, the New Arbat buildings were intended as residences for young families in the Soviet Union and featured facilities like shops, childcare facilities, libraries, and laundries. We intend to transform these buildings to meet the market need for hotels within a mid-level price range while also offering functionality. There is currently a major shortage of these types of hotels.
Celebrating Four Hotels
Once the buildings on Varvarka and New Arbat Streets are renovated, our hospitality portfolio will boast a total of four hotels. We also own the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel and Business Center as well as the Radisson Collection Hotel, which is also traditionally known as the Hotel Ukraina. The Slavyanskaya was built in 1991 and is situated close to the Kievskaya railway station. We renovated the building in the mid-2000s, and it now successfully operates under the Radisson brand. The Radisson Collection Hotel is located in one of the Seven Sister skyscrapers and we made certain that the exterior was completely preserved after extensive renovations. It is now known as one of Moscow’s top five-star hotels and for its stunning collection of Russian socialist realist paintings. The hotel has won several awards, including the Russian Hospitality Award and the Moscow City Hall’s Guiding Star award.
Other Hospitality Projects
In addition to the Radisson Collection, we have made major developments on the Taras Shevchenko embankment. This includes Congress Park, a business center where large-scale events are often held. FIFA’s headquarters were located at the center during the last World Cup and the Congress Forum recently held the Poland-Russia economic forum there as well. We also launched the Radisson flotilla from the banks of the hotel over a decade ago. It’s the only company of its kind in Moscow and offers year-round river cruises with icebreaking yachts. I personally oversaw the construction of the luxurious yachts that now serve as river trams and leisure boats. Other interesting projects we recently completed are Depo, a trendy food hall that is the product of the transformation of the historic Miussky tram park, and Food City, a large agricultural cluster.
All these developments and others currently in the works mean that we have an exciting few years ahead of us.
