Moscow auctions off historic Metropol hotel

Moscow on Thursday was set to auction off its landmark Hotel Metropol near the Kremlin, an iconic Art Nouveau building where Lenin once gave speeches and stars such as Michael Jackson spent the night.

Moscow city government was to auction off the hotel a short walk from Red Square with a start price of 8.7 billion rubles ($270 million) for the early 20th-century hotel with its eventual price expected to be far higher.

The auction was to sell off the building measuring almost 40,000 square metres (430,000 square feet) and its land, with experts expecting the selling price to be at least a third above the start price, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

“The market has waited a long time for the announcement of the privatisation of this significant city asset,” the head of the state enterprise carrying out the sale, Timur Zeldich, told Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily.

“The building is unique and this allows us to expect lively interest from Russian and international investors.”

The building is being sold while under a rental agreement to a joint enterprise managing the hotel, valid until 2017, according to the website of the auction.

The five-star hotel, one of Moscow’s most ornate buildings, was designed by British architect William Walcot and built from 1899 to 1905 on the commission of one of Russia’s richest businessmen and patron of the arts, Savva Mamontov.

Its facade is decorated with a ceramic panel by Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel called the “Princess of Dreams” and bas-reliefs depicting the four seasons.

The auction does not include the hotel’s moveable contents, which the hotel’s website lists as hundreds of antiques, from Meissen porcelain to hardwood furniture and paintings.

Lenin often gave speeches from a balcony in one of the restaurants of the hotel, then the largest in Russia, after it was taken over by the Bolshevik authorities following the 1917 revolution.

The hotel was then managed by Intourist during the Soviet era. It underwent a major refit of its 362 rooms in 1991, becoming the country’s first five-star hotel.

Among those who have stayed there are music stars such as Michael Jackson and Montserrat Caballe, actors Marlene Dietrich and Arnold Schwarzenegger and world leaders including former French president Jacques Chirac.

The building is listed as a historic monument of national significance, meaning that the new owner will be obliged to restore it without destroying its period features.