Spain’s Melia to manage Niemeyer-designed hotel in Brazil

Spanish hotel company Melia will manage Rio de Janeiro’s Hotel Nacional, a building designed by late architect Oscar Niemeyer, under a 20year contract, the Brazilian city said.

The iconic hotel, which has been closed since 1995, will reopen in June 2016 as the Hotel Nacional Gran Melia, offering visitors an urban resort concept.

Melia will also take over as the manager of Grupo HN Participaçoes e Emprendimentos Ltda., which was created to finance the hotel’s restoration at a cost of 400 million reais (about $108 million), the Rio de Janeiro city government said in a statement.

City officials, however, did not say how much Melia would be investing in the restoration project, which is being undertaken by Constructora Orca.

The hotel’s new management committed to opening before the Summer Olympic Games start in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016 after receiving guarantees from the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee that part of the socalled “Olympic family” would stay at the property.

The announcement was made following a meeting Tuesday between Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes and Melia executives at the hotel, located across from Sao Conrado beach in an upscale neighborhood on the city’s south side.

The new hotel will have 417 rooms, including two presidential suites and 10 executive suites, as well as a convention center.

“With a large international hotel network at its command, the reopening increases our supply of quality tourist offerings. It’s an honor for Rio de Janeiro to see the Hotel Nacional, with Olympic inspiration, rise from the ashes,” the mayor said.

The Hotel Nacional was declared an architectural heritage site by Rio de Janeiro in 1998.

As part of the project, Constructora Orca will build two residential towers behind the hotel, with sales of the units being used to finance the renovation.