The Hotel Glória is an abandoned historic hotel in the
Glória neighbourhood of
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.
History
The Hotel Glória 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
The Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, is a historic luxury hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, facing Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro#Copacabana Beach, Copacabana beach. Designed by French architect Joseph Gire, it opened on August 13, 1923. It is owne ...
. 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 and closed for a complete restoration and refurbishment, which started in 2009. In 2013, however, Batista's
EBX Group
EBX Group was a conglomerate that comprises six companies listed in B3 (stock exchange), B3's Novo Mercado, including OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes, Dommo Energia, MMX, OSX, and CCX. It was founded by Brazil, Brazilian businessman Eike Batista ...
went bankrupt and the renovation was stopped, leaving the building incomplete and largely stripped.
In 2014, Batista sold the hotel to Swiss
investment fund
An investment fund is a way of investment, 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 ad ...
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 (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...
, the
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...
sovereign wealth fund
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...
, for an undisclosed sum.
In 2022, it was announced that the derelict building would be restored as apartments.
[https://odia.ig.com.br/rio-de-janeiro/2022/07/6442978-antigo-hotel-gloria-sera-transformado-em-predio-residencial.html]
See also
*
References
External links
Glória Residencial official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloria
Hotels in Rio de Janeiro (city)
Hotel Glória
Hotels established in 1922
Hotel Glória