4/3/2008

Changing Dominating Feature of Košice

Doubletree by Hilton will be the new name of the former Slovan Hotel when its renovation will be completed in December this year. Total renovation costs will amount to approximately 800 million Crowns.
Renovation of the hotel resulted from the strategic partnership made between DIAMOND HOTELS CYPRUS LIMITED and Július Rezeš last March. As a result, the tandem of Interhouse Košice, a.s and J&T Real Estate, a.s. has become the developer and investor of the renovation project.
"This is quite an extensive renovation that will change not only the appearance of the hotel, but also its overall philosophy. What is even more important, the services the hotel provides both for guests and visitors will be significantly improved," explains Juraj Marko, J&T REAL ESTATE project manager.
The renovated hotel will have 160 double-bed rooms, 8 hotel suites and two rooms for guests with disabilities.
Wellness and fitness facilities for hotel guests will be established on the first underground floor and the hotel kitchen and laundry facility will be reconstructed, too.
The renovation will include a parking house constructed in the vicinity for more than 200 cars. This building will house also new commercial premises.
A change every citizen of Košice will surely notice will be the extension of the bottom part of the building - the two-floor parterre up to the street line from the side of the main square and also from the side of Roosevelt street. The new main hotel entrance will face this street.
"These changes reflect the announced intention of the city to extend the pedestrian zone up to the end of Hlavná street. This is the reason why we resolve the problem of parking together with the renovation and for placing the main entrance to make it accessible to cars," explains Juraj Marko.
The hotel will bear the name Doubletree by Hilton upon a franchising contract made between Interhouse Košice and Hilton Hotels. The hotel will be graded by four stars.

The former Slovan Hotel**** together with Grandhotel Starý Smokovec belongs to a hotel group of Ing. Július Rezeš's business portfolio. Apart from the hotel business, Július Rezeš operates in real estate business, trade in industrial commodities and advertising. Revenues from the portfolio of our companies amounted almost to SKK 3.5 billion in 2007. An increase in financial turnover up to approximately SKK 5.5 billion is expected for this year, of which at least 2 billions will be investments into development projects in the region of Eastern Slovakia.
J&T is one of the most active investors in the Slovak and Czech Republics. It leads the development in the High Tatra Mountains, where it invests more than SKK 11 million in prepared renovations of resorts in Tatranská Lomnica and Starý Smokovec and reconstruction of the Grandhotel in Štrbské Pleso and Tatranská Lomnica. The volume of investments made by J&T in real estate projects in Central and Eastern Europe and the Caribbean will exceed EUR 3.3 billion in the next 5 years.For more information see http://www.jtfg.com/

author: Maroš Sýkora - Hovorca, vedúci oddelenia PR