A company affiliated with Azimut Hotels bought the 362-room Metropol, located in Moscow, from the city government for 8.874 billion rubles (US$273 million) in an auction on Thursday.
Okhotny Ryad Deluxe, a subsidiary of the luxury hotel’s current management company Metropol paid slightly more than the auction’s starting price of 8.7 billion rubles (US$267 million) for the property. Metropol is controlled by Alexander Klyachin, Azimut’s founder and chairman.
A representative of Klyachin said it is too early to say whether or not the hotel will be rebranded or switch management companies.
The Art Nouveau hotel opened in 1901 and is located near Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater. It has a colorful past, serving as a temporarily as a government building for the Soviet government before reopening as a hotel primarily for foreign journalists stationed in Moscow.
The purchase did not include the property’s distinctive furnishings, which the city government is planning to sell in a separate auction.