The Athens Hilton, the Athens landmark hotel that has hosted countless important people and celebrities visiting Athens, is up for sale.
Alpha bank who came to own the hotel when it acquired the Ionian bank and its subsidiary Ionian Hotels is putting up the flagship hotel for sale as part of to raise capital for the bank. As part of the recapitalisation deal, banks will also have to concentrate on their core business and sell off assets that are not related to banking. According to a report on Bloomberg Alpha Bank has already engaged Citigroup as sales advisor and several private equity funds have shown interest in buying the hotel.
According to the report, the hotel’s sale value exceeds 100 million euros.
Athens Hilton history
Construction of the Athens Hilton began in 1959 on a plot of 17,000 square meters and it was considered unprecedented in scope and design, at the time. It was the Peza family that started the endeavor, but during construction they realized they could not complete the project. The ownership of the shares went to the Ionian Bank, which ended up financing the completion of the construction.
The hotel officially opened its doors on April 20, 1963, during three days of festivities. The architect team headed by A. Georgiadis consisted of P. Vasiliadis, E. Vourekas and S. Staikos. Architectural advisers included were the Warner Brothers; Burus, Ioan and Lunde of New York with the collaboration of the Hilton International Architectural Department.
The cost of construction at the time, including the value of the land, amounted to 15 million US dollars. It still is one of the architectural jewels of Greece’s capital
