Zurich: Hotel Atlantis is for sale again
The Atlantis Hotel in Zurich will cease operations at the end of April. The five-star superior hotel is up for sale, the owners say.
The board of directors of Neue Hotel Atlantis AG has announced that it will close the 5-star superior hotel located at the foot of the Uetliberg at the end of April. The management company Giardino Group, which operates four hotels in Switzerland, has been instructed to prepare the termination of the 140 employees, who are already on short-time work, at the end of April.
To justify the measure, Neue Hotel Atlantis AG refers in a statement to the cost structure and the rapidly deteriorating economic situation due to the Corona crisis. According to Issa Al Kawari, Chairman of the Board of Neue Hotel Atlantis AG, the current economic crisis leaves no choice but to cease operations. The owner is already in talks with investors who "would like to take over the hotel in a few months and possibly convert it". The aim of the board of directors is to sell the hotel in the long term "to a worthy, competent successor".
Zurich's Hotel Atlantis, one of the city's first modern 5-star hotels in the 1970s, was reopened at the beginning of December 2015 after an extensive refurbishment. This was preceded by several years of vacancy since its closure at the end of October 2004, until the city used the former luxury hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers from early 2009 until August 2010. In the fall of 2010, squatters moved in for a few weeks, after which part of the hotel was used as affordable housing for students. (bw)
