Yuri Luzhkov decided not to limit himself to demolishing the Moskva and Intourist hotels and thought about a larger project. The capital's government intends to dismantle the Rossiya Hotel, one of the largest in the world. Experts call the project economically justified, and Rossiya employees hope that the hotel will be saved.

"Rossiya", located in the very center of Moscow, was put into operation in January 1967. The hotel consists of four 12-story buildings oriented to the cardinal points. "Rossiya" has over 3,000 rooms, of which 2,717 are intended for guest accommodation, the rest are rented out as offices. The hotel category is three stars. 100% of the shares of OAO "Rossiya" belong to Moscow.

"The Moscow authorities are currently considering the issue of dismantling the Rossiya Hotel after the Moskva Hotel," Prime-TASS reported the words of the capital's mayor last Friday. The mayor made this statement on Thursday evening at the Russian Consulate General in New York. According to the mayor, a parking lot for several thousand cars is planned to be created on the site of the hotel, which would serve the Gostiny Dvor and other facilities that are planned to be created on this site.

"Yuri Mikhailovich never says words thoughtlessly," explained the mayor's press secretary, Sergei Tsoi. "The area in the city center is used inefficiently. To avoid traffic jams, a large parking lot is needed. And the interior condition of the Rossiya Hotel is not very good right now."

"If the mayor says so, then so it will be," another official echoes Tsoi. "Nobody believed that Intourist and Moskva could be demolished, but it was done."

The hotel staff itself is shocked by Luzhkov's statement. "Rossiya" is a normally functioning, profitable enterprise," says a high-ranking hotel employee on condition of anonymity. According to him, the hotel is already carrying out reconstruction at its own expense - 1,500 rooms have been renovated, and the lobbies have been reconstructed. "This news cut me and all the employees to the heart. After all, no one bothered to find employment for those who worked at "Moscow" and "Intourist," complains a Rossiya employee.

Nevertheless, experts assess the idea of demolishing Rossiya as a whole positively. A Vedomosti source in the mayor's office noted that there are several arguments in favor of demolishing Rossiya: expensive land in the city center is being used irrationally (for example, the hotel has a huge inner courtyard); in addition, Moscow really needs a large parking lot in the city center.

"This would be a reasonable decision from an economic point of view," says Marina Smirnova, deputy director of marketing at Hotel Consulting and Development Group. "Land in the center is very expensive, and it can bring in significantly more income if used more rationally."

The demolition project of "Rossiya" may become the largest undertaking of its kind, since the area of "Rossiya" premises is 240,000 square meters, and the area of the territory is 13 hectares. For comparison: the area of the dismantled "Intourist" was only about 30,000 square meters, and "Moskva" - 97,000 square meters.

According to the city administration, the demolition of the Intourist cost the city budget more than $5 million. The project to demolish and subsequently rebuild the Moskva Hotel is estimated at $300-400 million.

Developers believe that "Rossiya" does not fit into the modern urban appearance, but they warn that if the authorities do not allow the number of floors to be increased, it will be difficult to find an investor for the project. Andrey Zakrevsky, head of the marketing department of "Sistema-Gals", recalled that a project was previously considered that envisaged the construction of a high-rise (about 100 floors) hotel and a modern business center on the site of "Rossiya".

Luzhkov will demolish "Russia"