Grand Hotel Europe, St. Petersburg

Orient Hotels Company refused to buy the building of the New York Public Library

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Orient-Express Company, the operator of a network of luxury hotels, cruise ships and trains, abandoned the idea of buying one of the buildings owned by the New York Public Library. Earlier, Orient-Express has announced its plans for acquiring one of the buildings of the library, located in the heart of New York, in an area Midtown.

It was expected that on the site of an old mansion, where one of the library departments is located, Orient-Express will build an 11 storey hotel. This was the original version of an agreement, which the representatives of the library and Orient-Express Company have signed at the end of 2007. The value of the deal was estimated at that time in the 59 million dollars. In the plans of Orient-Express was creation of a respectable hotel & entertainment complex in New York. New hotel, according to architects, would have been connected with the club «21», which is also owned by Orient-Express.

According to the representatives of Orient-Express, the execution of the preliminary agreement is currently not possible. The main reason for the refusal of the company's previous intentions is the global financial crisis and difficulties with obtaining loans for the construction of real estate.

Since the summer of 2008, Orient-Express is experiencing several difficulties. The operator of hotels, which appeared in the market in 1982, has its main assets in the field of super luxurious tourism. Orient-Express Company owns about 40 hotel of «hi-end» class in 25 countries, among which are Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg. According to the result of activities in the 4th quarter of 2008, the company noted the decline in revenue by 3.5% due to falling share prices. The total turnover during 2008 fell by 4% from about 600 million dollars in 2007 to 574 million dollars in 2008.

Date: 03/03/2009