The Watergate Hotel is deeply ingrained in the nation’s consciousness, an icon that walks the line between premier hospitality and the country’s elite.
Euro Capital Properties is not afraid of such inherent challenges and capitalized on the hotel’s history through a massive $125 million renovation, selecting BBGM as the Architect for the project. Financial Times provides the latest coverage, with a deep look into the history of this iconic property and the massive opportunity it presented for its new ownership.
An excerpt from the article by Kate Salter in Financial Times:
The hotel’s new owners, Jacques and Rakel Cohen of Euro Capital Properties, who bought it in 2010 for $45m, say they “immediately saw the potential to return the hotel to a state worthy of its reputation as Washington’s finest address”. They know that the scandal is their most powerful marketing tool and are enthusiastically milking it: the telephone reservation line ends in 1972, the room keys say “No need to break in” and pens are inscribed with “I stole this from the Watergate Hotel”. There are plans to play extracts from Nixon’s speeches in the toilets. Even the name of the hotel is written in a version of the typewriter font used in the Senate Watergate Committee case documents.
Aside from American history buffs, the new owners want the hotel to appeal to a younger, design-conscious crowd — the kind of “hip” people that Buttaro-Pfeffer says the complex needs to attract. The hotel’s 336 bedrooms, designed by BBGM, have a masculine, mid-century corporate feel (and with rates starting at about $500, it may be businessmen rather than young hipsters who can afford to stay here). Later this summer a spa is due to open, along with a rooftop bar and Michael Santoro’s fine dining restaurant.
