A five-star hotel complex with apartments downtown Kyiv, which will be managed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, would not be opened by the Euro 2012 European football championship that Ukraine hosts from June 8 to July 1, 2012, the project co-owner, Borys Fuksman, has told Interfax-Ukraine.
"The opening of the hotel has been postponed. We failed to open it by Euro 2012, and now we’re discussing the final terms of its opening. It’s likely that it will be autumn 2012," he said.
He said that the postponement of the terms is linked to issues of a construction character.
Fuksman also said that the hotel did not sign agreements for accommodation of Euro 2012 guests.
As reported, former owners of the 1+1 TV channel, Fuksman and Oleksandr Rodniansky in 2010 bought 25% each in a project on the construction of a 24-storey hotel complex with apartments at 28/30, Shevchenko Avenue in Kyiv. Hilton Hotels Corporation will manage the hotel.
The Kyiv-based St Sophia Homes Group in late December 2009 resumed construction of the complex that had been suspended due to problems with financing. Earlier St Sophia Homes planned to open the hotel in 2011. An agreement with the Hilton chain to manage the hotel for the period of 25 yeas from the moment of the opening of the hotel was signed in April 2006.
The construction of the building with a gross building area of around 58,000 square meters was commenced in 2007. The project foresees a 257-room hotel on the first-ninth floors and 93 apartments on the rest of the floors.
St Sophia Homes Group is an investment and developing holding. Its core business is development, design management and construction in the hotel, office and housing segments.
Fuksman and Rodniansky in 2008 sold their minority stakes (a total of 40%) in the Studio 1+1 TV channel (Kyiv) to U.S. Central European Media Enterprises Ltd.
