Bulgari to build first hotel-resort near Kremlin

(ANSA) - Rome, May 25 - Bulgari will be creating its first Hotels and Resorts in Moscow.
    Bulgari group managing director Jean-Christophe Babin has signed an agreement with Russian investor Alexey Bogachev for a project that will be implemented by the Moscow-based real estate development company StormProperties.
    The hotel is expected to open in the Russian capital in 2019 and will be the seventh Hotel Bulgari in the world, after the opening of one in Milan in 2004, one in Bali in 2006, London in 2012 and Shanghai, Beijing and Dubai expected in 2017. The hotel will be erected in a high-end area only 300 meters from the most important parts of the city, such as the Kremlin and the Red Square. It will be adjacent to the world-famous Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
    It will have 65 rooms and suites, including a 300-square-meter one with a 600-square-meter terrace looking out over Moscow and the Kremlin. The hotel will have a restaurant, bar and 1,600-square-meter spa as well as a 25-meter-long pool. Part of a large building complex between Bolshaya Nikitskaya and Sredniy Kislovskiye, the hotel will include a residential section with luxury apartments. The project, by the Italian architecture firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners in collaboration with the Russian Atrium, will be offering a combination of traditional themes in order to reflect the design and style of the surrounding area. Modern architectural elements are put alongside those of traditional architecture through conservational restoration. The internal building will undergo a complete overhaul in order to offer the highest possible levels of luxury services, while the internal courtyard, inspired by those of Italian Renaissance ones, will offer hotel guests an area to use during the summer season. The building was formerly the residence of a family from the country's nobility, and later home to musicians from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. ''The reconstruction of an entire block of Moscow's Old City center,'' Citterio said, ''is very important at the cultural-economic level. The project will include the restoration and harmonization of the facades dating back to different ages.''