DOUBLETREE by Hilton will be the new name of the Slovan Hotel, which is under construction after years of dominating Košice's skyline.
The name is the result of a franchising agreement between Interhouse Košice, the real estate investor that owns the hotel, and the Hilton Hotels company, the SITA newswire wrote.
Tomáš Bálint from Interhouse and Maroš Sýkora from J&T Real Estate, which is one of the developers, announced that the reconstruction will cost about Sk800 million. Work started on the 45-metre building last summer and will continue until the end of the year. The original facade will be preserved, as will the building's modernist style, so construction will not change the hotel's overall appearance, they said.
The Doubletree by Hilton will be a four-star hotel with 160 double rooms, eight suites, and two handicapped-accessible rooms. A wellness and fitness centre will be added to the basement and the hotel kitchen and laundry will be completely renovated. Space for more than 200 cars will be created next to the hotel.
The reconstruction is the result of a strategic partnership concluded last year between Diamond Hotels Cyprus company, which is also developing the hotel, and Interhouse Košice's chairman, Július Rezeš.
Rezeš inherited the property from his father, Alexander, a former transport minister under ex-prime minister Vladimír Mečiar.
Interhouse Košice also owns the Grandhotel Starý Smokovec in the High Tatras.
The J&T Group is one of the most active investors in the Slovak and Czech republics. Its reconstruction of centres in Tatranská Lomnica and Starý Smokovec and the Grandhotel at Štrbské Pleso and in Tatranská Lomnica will cost more than Sk11 billion.
