News & Stories
Lucerne. The plans for a 77-metre tall hotel including holiday apartments designed by Ticino’s top-class architect Mario Botta and located at Celerina near St. Moritz in Upper Engadin/Switzerland have been closed. This building would even have towered above the church of the small town. The man celebrated by Switzerland for the spa of the Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa worth 35 million Swiss francs now took an "open slap", as the Swiss newspaper "Suedostschweiz" put it. Is the decision against Botta a signal against the wave of architectural superlatives in Switzerland? At the same time in Lucerne, copper continues to drip from the design roof of the culture and congress centre polluting the lake.
Oman. Vacation exchange company RCI has unveiled a new timeshare project in Oman. The company has announced an agreement with Allied Oman, the leisure real estate enterprise, to affiliate the timeshare project at the Barka Resort.
Baar. Hapimag, one of the leading European specialist for holiday right of residence products, continued its successful development through 2007. Sales revenues were boosted by 7 per cent over the previous year's level, to 246.1 million CHF. Consolidated income also increased, by roughly 30 per cent, to 2.9 million CHF. These figures confirm the positive trend of the past two years.
Zell am See. After five years, the Austrian private hotelier Dr. Wilfried Holleis has given up on plans for the hotel complex Katarineninsel in Rovinj, Croatia. The reason for the decision was the uncertain legal situation prevalent in the Balkan state.
Berlin. WestFonds Immobilien-Anlagegesellschaft mbH in Duesseldorf will shortly sell a valuable international portfolio consisting of eight pieces of hotel real estate. The portfolio value is said to be worth several hundreds of millions.
Berlin. Hosts of the 11th International Hotel Investment Forum have announced the finalists for the prestigious Deal of the Year Awards. The Deal of the Year Awards will be presented 5 March 2008 at the InterContinental Hotel in Berlin, Germany, in the categories of Single Asset, New Development, and Portfolio.
Geretsried. In two years' time, the fairytale of 1001 nights will soon be open to visitors south of Munich, in Geretsried, Bavaria. There, the world's biggest day spa is currently in construction, the "Spa Aladin". By early 2010, an oriental wellness oasis stretching over 22,000 sq m will come into being; an attraction predicted to entice 600,000 visitors per year. An operator is still being sought for the accompanying hotel. The cost of the entire project runs to some 60 million Euros with finance coming from a Saudi Arabian investor.
Zurich. Two Swiss entrepreneurs are now pushing ahead in the "Health Care Residences" segment. From their base in Zurich, they have set up a company which combines quality residences with additional medical services.