One - Milan Central Station - is used to seeing travellers pass through, the other - the BHV - Parisian shopaholics. But the two have just set themselves a common future, that of adding a touch of hospitality within their walls. Although no official announcement has been made, the Parisian department stores' could soon be hosting a hotel on its floors, according to information revealed by the media outlet La Lettre.
Shaken by its controversial partnership with the Chinese fast fashion brand Shein, which led Caisse des Dépots to decline the purchase of its premises, BHV was recently sold by the Galeries Lafayette Group to the Canadian fund Brookfield Asset Management, for 300 million euros. The new owner is planning a number of changes to reposition the site.
In addition to a reduced surface area of 40% for the shop operated by SGM and its chairman Frédéric Merlin, its top two floors could house a hotel with The Letter outlines. Top-of-the-range hotels that break with classic codes, relaxed service, cocktail bars: all the similarities with the other addresses in theExperimental GroupBrookfield is a partner in a €350m property company to be set up in 2021, and this is no doubt not by chance... However, the group says it has no plans to do so.
Bazaar at the station
While this project is still at the guesswork stage, the one for Milan's central station has been confirmed. The fruit of a partnership between Grandi Stazioni Retail, which manages the commercial areas of 14 major Italian stations, the real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield and hotel developer Pacini Group, this project aims to create a top-of-the-range hotel in the monumental Stazione Centrale, inaugurated in 1931.
Grandi Stazioni Retail intends to make the most of its property assets by expanding the range of high added-value services it offers to passengers at its stations. " The arrival of the first hotel establishment in an Italian railway station represents a fundamental step in the process of transforming railway stations into complex, multi-faceted ecosystems, places that are increasingly integrated into the urban fabric and capable of offering increasingly diversified services and experiences. "said Elena Sorlini, Managing Director of Grandi Stazioni Retail.
Architect Roberto Murgia's firm RMA has been commissioned by Grandi Stazioni to create the architectural concept, and the Pacini Group has entrusted Studio Marco Piva with the interior design: these are the only details yet to be revealed about the future five-star hotel, on which work has already begun. Another certainty is that its contemporary experience has been designed to satisfy an international leisure and business clientele, and that the hotel will therefore be affiliated to a major hotel chain. Announcement expected in the coming months.
