The Hotel Glória was a grand hotel in the Glória neighbourhood of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It was built by entrepreneur Rocha Miranda for the International Exhibition of 1922 to commemorate the centennial of Brazil's independence. It opened on August 15, 1922. The hotel was designed by Joseph Gire, who also designed the

Copacabana Palace Belmond Copacabana Palace, better known as simply Copacabana Palace, is a hotel in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, facing Copacabana beach. Designed by French architect Joseph Gire, it was built in a style that follows the line and model of ...

. It was reportedly the first reinforced concrete building to be built in South America and was erected with the aid of German engineers. Originally the hotel had a casino (closed in 1946, when gambling was prohibited in Brazil), a theatre, ballrooms, recreation areas, and only about 280 rooms but was later expanded to about 630. Due to its proximity to the financial and political centre of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Hotel Glória always harbored great movie stars, singers, politicians, and heads of state. Hotel Glória was built with 180 rooms. It was expanded by 100 rooms with a wing to the southwest, and a 400-room addition was added at an unknown date. The hotel has a reinforced concrete skeleton, and each room had a bathroom and a telephone. It was later furnished with a swimming pool, a steam sauna, an automatic phone billing system, a meeting room and equipment for video-conferences, and a heliport. In 2008, the hotel was bought by Brazilian entrepreneur

Eike Batista Eike Fuhrken Batista da Silva (; born 3 November 1956) is a Brazilian-German serial entrepreneur who made and lost a fortune in mining and oil and gas industries. He engaged in a quest to promote Brazil's infrastructure with large-scale project ...

and closed for a complete restoration and refurbishment, which started in 2009. In 2013, however, Batista's

EBX Group EBX Group is a conglomerate that comprises six companies listed in BOVESPA’s Novo Mercado, including: OGX, MMX, OSX, and CCX, founded and formerly controlled by Brazilian businessman Eike Batista, the chairman of the EBX Group, who was, in 2018 ...

went bankrupt and the renovation was stopped. In 2014, Batista sold the hotel to Swiss

investment fund An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages in ...

Acron AG for 500 million Brazilian reais (approximately U.S.$ 210 million at the time), but the deal was undone in early 2016. Batista then sold the hotel to

Mubadala Development Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC ( ar, شركة مبادلة للاستثمار), or simply Mubadala, is an Emirati state-owned holding company that acts as a sovereign wealth fund. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Dev ...

, the Abu Dhabi

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

, for an undisclosed sum. As of early 2018, however, renovation works have not resumed and the building is still derelict.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloria Hotels in Rio de Janeiro (city) Hotel Glória Hotels established in 1922 Hotel Glória

See also

References