Endangered public property seeks buyer to give it a new lease of life: property developers and hotel groups have not been insensitive to these small ads placed by the State or local authorities. Under the aegis of AXA Real Estate and Rezidor, the former courthouse in Nantes has been converted into a Radisson Blu hotel. With a designer bar and lobby in the Salle des Pas Perdus, L'Assise restaurant in the former courtroom, 142 bedrooms, a spa and 300m2 of seminar space on the upper floors, architect Jean-Philippe Nuel has delivered a highly contemporary verdict for this business-oriented establishment. He is also overseeing the transformation of Marseille's Hôtel Dieu into the InterContinental. The location of this twelfth-century building, enlarged in the eighteenth century to designs by Mansart, is exceptional, on the hill of Le Panier, overlooking the Old Port. The services on offer at this 194-room luxury hotel, which opens for business in March, include a gourmet restaurant, a Clarins spa, a cultural space for private events, a conference centre and a splendid terrace. And the list of hotel conversions is not yet closed, with the Hôtel Dieu in Lyon to be converted into an Inter Continental, the Ste Anne prison in Avignon and the Strasbourg police station to be converted into Marriott hotels...
The Intercontinental Marseille Hotel-Dieu
The façade of the Radisson Blu Nantes hotel
