JLL Hotels & Hospitality team appointed by the owner of Hotel Nalchik to provide the expert opinion on the reconstruction and branding of the historical hotel in the city centre. Once successfully implemented, the Hotel Nalchik will become the first branded hotel in the city.
Located in the center of the city the Hotel Nalchik was built in 1931 on the site of an ancient fortress, in 1950 it was reconstructed, and during the period from 1967 to 1974, the property was rebuilt again. The hotel area is 7,378 sq m and total property area is 9,744 sq m. With its perfect location the 130-room hotel hosted a lot of tourists and visitors year round. There is a central park and a resort area not far from the building which used to attract tourists from all over the Union. During the hotel operation there were a lot of well-known personalities staying there. In 1999, the Hotel Nalchik which was on the city balance sheet was transferred to the Republic ownership, and closed very soon; it is not working now. There was a plan to reconstruct the building to make the Hotel for officials and delegations, but due to lack of financing the project has been frozen. Now it has a chance to get a ‘second birth’.
David Jenkins, Executive Vice President, and Ivan Kiseev, Vice President, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, visited Kabardino-Balkaria republic and met with both the Governor of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, Yury Kokov, and the Mayor of the city of Nalchik, Mohammed Kodzokov, and stressed the importance of regional and city support for the redevelopment. Realizing the initiative’s importance for the increasing of region’s attractiveness both for tourists and businesses, both officials expressed their willingness to back the project.
David Jenkins said: “I was highly impressed by Nalchik, a truly green and pleasant city. Due to the governmental support and city image promotion, we see now new steps of its evaluation and development – there are plans for a new airport and various additional city infrastructure elements construction. A branded hotel should be certainly a key part of these changes. This particular project offers an ideal opportunity to redevelop a hotel that has been closed now for 15 years and used to be the famous hotel of the city. It has a perfect prime location - in the heart of Nalchik, next to the famous central park – which is a competitive advantage of the project that would be highly appreciated by any professional hotel operator.”
At present JLL Hotels & Hospitality team see more activity in the Caucuses regions that demonstrates the market growing potential in terms of business development and tourism segment.
“We are noticing a second wave of development activity away from the typical Siberian and Ural towns,” David Jenkins commented. “If this market continues to gain momentum, we will shortly see noticeable difference in the city of Nalchik and Kabardino-Balkaria republic in general. We are confident that the famous hotel redevelopment and branding with the governmental support and active participation will highly contribute to the city image improvement and is likely to boost tourist interest to the region.”