Michael Jackson slept there. Vladimir Lenin harangued Bolsheviks there.Over the past century, the Hotel Metropol has seen the extremes of Russianlife, from austere revolutionary fervor to flashy pop indulgence.
Now, at a starting price of 8.7 billion rubles ($272 million), the hotel is upfor sale Thursday, auctioned off by the Moscow city government as part of itsprivatization program. That's expected to go higher — in steps of 435 millionrubles ($13.6 million) — and where it will stop is anybody's guess.
"It's hard to tell what's justified" as a final price, said TatianaTikova, the director of the valuation department at the Colliers real estatebrokerage in Moscow.
Officials haven't released the names of the prospective bidders, but newsreports say Azimut and Khorston, two major Russian hotel chains, are expectedto be among them.
Moscow, with a perpetual shortage of hotel rooms and a business culture thatadores ostentation, is an attractive market for high-end hoteliers and theMetropol offers plenty of curb-flash.
Situated catty-corner from the Bolshoi Theater and an easy stroll from RedSquare, the location is prime for any guest who wants to feel in the verycenter of the city's heaving action.
It's one of Moscow's most distinctive buildings as well, a cheery Art Nouveauconfection in a city where buildings mostly seem to glower. Although at sixstories it's one of the city center's more low-rise structures, it stands outwith sinuous curves, friezes of women en deshabille and bands of brightlycolored majolica tiles. Several elaborate mosaics top the building, the mostnoted being Mikhail Vrubel's "Princess of Dreams," showing a dyingknight sailing through a crashing sea to a vision of his beloved.
Then, there's the historical cachet. When it opened in 1901, it was a paragonof Russians' growing prosperity and confidence, but 17 years later took on afar different role. When Bolsheviks decided to move their government from St.Petersburg to Moscow, the hotel was appropriated to become the Second House ofthe Soviets.
A large plaque on the exterior notes that in 1918-19, Lenin "many times gavereports and speeches at sessions and party congresses" in the hotel andchatted there with members of the "prodotryad," armed squads ofworkers who forcefully appropriated food from the bourgeoisie. Another plaquecommemorates a 1921 meeting in the hotel that resulted in a friendshipagreement with Mongolia.
In the chaos of World War II, the Metropol became home and office for almostall the foreign journalists allowed to work in the USSR. "Gloomy andcavernous, Mother Metropol was like a college fraternity house" duringthat time, Whitman Bassow wrote in his book "The MoscowCorrespondents."
The auction winner will get all that, but won't get the hotel's elaborate arrayof antique furnishings and paintings. How much of that might be available forseparate purchase is unclear. Natalya Bocharova, head of the city propertydepartment, said this month that an array of objects from the hotel will beturned over to museums.
The furnishings are a major part of the hotel's appeal. Jackson, during a 1993stay, reportedly was so enamored with a lamp featuring a bear figure that heagitated unsuccessfully to buy it.
Despite its storied history and reputation, hotel review websites suggest theMetropol's rooms often are in need of spiffing up. Tikova said privatizationshould ensure the hotel gets an upgrade.
"It allows for more efficient management, it allows timelyrenovations," she said.