Tbilisi’s Luxurious Biltmore Hotel Opens in Former Soviet Institute Building

TBILISI – The Soviet era Institute of Marx, Engels and Lenin (IMELI) was officially turned into a luxurious hotel in the heart of Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi on Sunday.

The USD 140 million, 214-room Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi officially opened to a lavish display of fireworks and laser shows Sunday night.

The 32-floor hotel is the first hotel in Georgia to have a presidential suite, according to the hotel’s financiers, the UAE-based Arab Investment Company.

Originally built in 1934-38 in the Stalinist Gothic style by famed Soviet architect Alexey Shchusev – the man who designed Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square – the building materials were looted from the Armenian Pantheon in Tbilisi after notorious NKVD head Lavrenty Beria had the church and cemetery destroyed.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the building was used for government purposes and housed Georgia’s first independent government under controversial former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in 1991-92.

It later briefly served as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before being heavily damaged in the civil wars that plagued Georgia in the early 1990s.

Large parts of the interior were destroyed by both shelling and looting, and the institute’s former Soviet-era library that was dedicated to Marxist-Leninist theory was sacked.

In 2006, developers Kempinski and Vostok Capital pledged to turn the building into a five-star luxury hotel, with an original design by Berlin-based architects Christoph Kohl and Rob Krier.

After the 2008 five-day war between Russia and Georgia, the original investors pulled out and the Abu Dhabi Group took over the re-design of the building. A new project was developed by UK-based Architectural firm Shankland Cox in 2012.

The design immediately ran into controversy after architects, historical preservationists and civil society representatives objected to building a modern, glass skyscraper in the heart of Tbilisi’s historic center.

As part of a negotiated settlement, Abu Dhabi Group agreed to restore the main building of the Soviet-era IMELI building and incorporate it into the hotel.

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development of United Arab Emirates Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan attended Sunday’s grand opening.

“This is Dhabi Group’s largest investment in Georgia. The opening of this high-class hotel once again proves that there is a comfortable environment for investment and doing business in Georgia,” Kvirikashvili said.

Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan added that the hotel suits Georgia’s growing high-end tourism potential.

“Georgia and its capital are stable and secure places to invest in the region. This makes the country an ideal place for doing business,” Al Nahyan said.

By Tamar Svanidze
Edited by Nicholas Waller

Photo: Ministry of Economy