The center of Madrid has become the magnet for luxury hotel openings in the capital. Alcalá street, initially one of the most iconic in Madrid and with a multitude of protected buildings, will have a new hotel at number 21, the Generali building, on the corner of Virgen de los Peligros street, in the area known as Pasaje de the light. It will house a 13-story hotel with restaurant and meeting areas, after approving the conversion of the property for lodging use.
The Governing Board of the Madrid City Council has today approved the special urban plan that will make viable the conversion of its use from residential to lodging. The intervention will mean, according to the Consistory, “the enhancement of the property, which is affected by various heritage protection regulations.”
The building, designed by Eusebio Bona Puig and built by Luis Mosteiro Canas between 1932 and 1935, was currently disused. It has a constructed area of ??11,570 m2 on a 971 m2 plot of land.
The property, classified as residential and included in the Municipal Catalog of Protected Buildings, is located in the historic center, which is why it has been assigned a level of protection grade 1 level 2, which obliges the developer to safeguard architectural elements such as the façade, the portal and the central common staircase.
The building is also protected as it is located in the ‘Historical Complex of the Villa de Madrid Precinct’, in the ‘Buffer Zone of the Landscape of Light’, in the ‘Archaeological Protection Zone of the Historic Precinct of Madrid’ due to its location within of the ‘Cerca y arrabal de Felipe II’ and because there are monuments of Cultural Interest (BIC) around it, such as the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya building, the Madrid Casino, La Equitativa (historical headquarters of the Spanish Bank of Credit) and the churches of Las Calatravas or the Real Concepción de Calatrava.
The City Council’s plan involves converting the building to house hospitality services, a restaurant on the first floor and a meeting room on the second. The rehabilitation will preserve its architectural elements and will seek to improve “the conditions of accessibility and sustainability.”
For this reason, the City Council explained that the project demonstrates “the restoration of the protected elements, the maintenance of the characteristics of the construction, the shapes of the building and the compatibility of the new use with the conservation of the elements.”
This new hotel joins the long list of openings that are expected or debuted in the center of Madrid in recent months. Phillipe Starck’s project for the Brach brand is underway, an exclusive chain of five-star hotels that will arrive in the capital of Spain thanks to the approval of a special plan by the Madrid City Council. The building on which it sits, at number 20 Gran Vía, was designed a century ago for rental housing, although it ended up housing offices of different companies and was even occupied by the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid.
Going down towards the intersection with Alcalá you will find the works on the iconic Metrópolis, which will transform its old offices into a boutique hotel with a gym. At number 60 on the avenue is the Romano building, which will also change its offices and homes for 126 rooms for tourists.
On the same Alcalá street is also the spectacular Galería Canalejas project, which has a luxury hotel from the Four Seasons chain and a high-end shopping gallery.
