Bulgari prepares to check into Knightsbridge

Four years after the opening of its flagship store on New Bond Street, Bulgari, the luxury goods group, is close to securing a site in Knightsbridge for its first London hotel.

 The Times has learnt that the
company, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange, is preparing
to sign a deal with a firm of developers to create a 78-room hotel
with five apartments on the site of the former Normandie Hotel,
overlooking Knightsbridge Green.

It is understood that the hotel, for
which a planning application has just been lodged with Westminster
City Council, will be similar in style to the first Bulgari Hotel
in Milan, designed by Antonio Citterio, the Italian architect. Mr
Citterio will work on the project alongside David Walker Architects
of London.

The Normandie Hotel was built in 1911
as the Knightsbridge Palace Hotel, being renamed in 1937 and closed
in 1977. Since then, the site has been subject to many proposals,
most involving a return to hotel use. In 2006, Waterloo Real Estate
was granted permission to build a 155-room hotel, only to sell the
site to three private investors the following year.

The new owners, believed to be Spanish,
have now submitted a fresh planning application with much larger
rooms more suited to the Bulgari formula.

Construction industry sources suggest
that the proposed project, involving the demolition of the existing
buildings, could cost £80 million to £100 million and
will take three years to complete. The 11-storey building will have a
stylish restaurant serving modern Italian food.

Bulgari moved into the hotel market in
2001 when it signed a joint venture with Marriott International, the
American operator. The declared strategy was for the two companies to
invest $140 million (£89 million) in equity and loans over five
years, with Bulgari taking a 65 per cent stake and Marriott the
balance.