Catalonia-based hotel group Hoteles Turísticos Unidos (Hotusa) has beaten the Metrovacesa-Starwood alliance and five other bids in the race to build the World Trade Center hotel in Barcelona.
The new five star hotel, which will occupy the fourth tower in a business complex in Port Vell de Barcelona, will have eight floors, 230 rooms. Work is due to start in March 2000 with the opening date set for April 2002.
It will be the first hotel ever to be built in a Spanish port. Hotusa offered to pay €70m (Pts11.6bn), with an annual payment of €1.4m (Pts233m) until 2052, when the Barcelona Port Authority concession runs out. The authority owns 51.09% of the World Trade Center.
Expansion, 27 October 1999, page 22
