The Lutetia closes for renovation

The doors of the Parisian luxury hotel are closed today and will remain so for three years, just enough time refresh the prestigious property.

After the Plaza Athénée, the Crillon and the Ritz, Paris's luxury hotels are continuing to receive facelifts with the Lutetia. The capital's historic hotel on the Left Bank closed its doors today to begin renovations that will last 36 months. At the end of its complete renovation, the property will enter the collection of luxury hotels called "The Set," that already includes Le Café Royal in London and the Conservatorium in Amsterdam.

The metamorphosis of the Lutetia has been entrusted to the French architecture studio Jean-Michel Wilmotte, which is already renovating the Crillon. The goal is to give the hotel a contemporary design while preserving the property's heritage. "It was essential for our hotel collection to turn to a French architect with good knowledge of the city of Paris and who already worked in heritage sites, because each hotel in our collection is anchored in the history and culture of its environment," declared Georgi Akirov of The Set Hotels.

Several major transformations will take place over the next three years including enlarging the brasserie to seat 240. A patio will be created at the center of the hotel and the number of rooms will be reduced by 40 to create vaster suites. Services will be added such as a 700 square meter spa; a Jazz Club will result from the transformation of the current Borghèse salon).

Previously operated under the Concorde banner, the property was bought by the Israeli group Alrov, for an amount estimated at around 154 million euros in 2010 from the Louvre Group, which was a subsidiary of the investment fund Starwood Capital at the time.