A Qatari-owned luxury hotel in Zurich will wind down after less than five years in business. The move highlights the perils of high-end real estate for the ultra-wealthy.
The board of Hotel Atlantis, a luxury hotel set on a hill overlooking Zurich, will close at the end of this month, it said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. It cited high expenses as well as a rapidly worsening economic outlook for shutting, without specifically mentioning the coronavirus pandemic.
The closure culminates a stormy eight-year ownership of the property by Qatari investors, who had to drop plans to build a private penthouse within the hotel after locking horns over local zoning officials. Qatar is the second-largest shareholder in Credit Suisse, and its emirate's ruling family last year embarked on a revival of a small European wealth manager together with ex-UBS private banking head, Juerg Zeltner.
Failed Search for Buyer
The Qatari owners are seeking a buyer for the Atlantis. According to media reports last year, the owners wanted 160 million Swiss francs ($165 million) for the property, which includes a pool and spa as well as extensive gardens.
The hotel's holding company never disclosed profit-and-loss accounts, but the owners likely never recouped their money from remodeling it. The hotel's 140 employees will be let go, the investors said. The fate of the Atlantis, which had its heyday in the late 1960s, is a harbiger for other ultra-wealthy investors in Swiss luxury hotels.
Billionaire Showcases
They are popular showcase projects: ex-foreign exchange trader Urs Schwarzenbach owns the Dolder in Zurich, which is regularly rated as one of Europe's top hotels, and Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev operates Lucerne's Château Guetsch.
The Dolder lost 39 million francs last year, a sum Schwarzenbach has apparently been happy to subsidize: the hotel and adjacent properties have run double-digit losses since opening in 2008 following a four-year renovation overseen by Lord Norman Foster's architecture firm.
Guetsch, a 19th-century castle which overlooks Lake Lucerne, is likely in similar straits: Lebedev's investment company hasn't disclosed financial results, but the billionaire last year signalled his willingness to sell for the right price, after nearly a decade of ownership.
