Buenos Aires’s Hyatt Hotel lures megabuck investment

An Argentine investment fund disclosed its intention to pony up $65 million to build a deluxe hotel in one of the most exclusive zones of Buenos Aires. The new lodging facility –to be run by Hyatt Hotels- will be built in the backyard of the Duhau Palace, a historic French-style building constructed in 1930 in the fancy borough of Recoleta.

“This will be a top-of-the-line hotel. There’s an operational contract signed with Hyatt International, so this is going to be a Park Hyatt resort, the cream of the top within Hyatt Hotels,” said Eduardo Firvida, project manager for El Rosario S.A.., an investment company.

Founded in the U.S. back in 1957, Hyatt Hotels currently runs 207 resorts and tourist compounds all over the world.

The project has generated protests among the residents of the exclusive Recoleta neighborhood who fear the brand-new hotel could tamper with the zone’s architectural heritage.

The plan also includes an all-out refurbishment of the palace that comprises a cluster of French-style edifices built in Buenos Aires in the 20th century when Argentina was one of the world’s wealthiest nations and well-off families used to build their houses following the European architectural trends of the times.

According to officials from the investment fund, the palace will serve as an attached compliment to the hotel, featuring 27 suites and a huge lobby area of its own.

With a 2-year building deadline, the project marks Hyatt’s comeback to the Argentine capital after its competitor chain Four Seasons took over the license to operate a lavish hotel in Buenos Aires a few years ago.

El Rosario stated in a press release that the hotel’s structure will respect the surrounding architecture and will be in complete harmony with the rest of the buildings in an effort to stave off the neighbors’ blasting flak.

The 183-room Park Hyatt Hotel in Buenos Aires will shore up Argentina’s bludgeoning tourist industry, a sector that got a pretty good shot in the arm last year with the arrival of thousands of foreign visitors drawn by the Jan. 2002 devaluation of the local currency that eventually slashed prices in U.S. dollars.

According to the nation’s Department of Tourism, last year’s inflow of outlandish tourists grew 15.4 percent compared to 2001.