The Kempinski Group has announced the opening date of the five-star Kempinski Nikolskaya hotel on Lubyanka Square in central Moscow.
The new hotel, which will be a complex of restored historical buildings, will open in the second quarter of 2012. It was originally planned for a 2011 opening.
The hotel will have 225 rooms and a 400-car underground garage. It will incorporate the entrance to the Lubyanka metro station across the square from the imposing headquarters of the FSB. The metro station will also be restored.
Kempinski opened Russia's first luxury hotel, the Baltschug Kempinski, in 1992. It also operates the Kempinski Moika 22 in St. Peterburg.
The starting price for a room in the 230-room Baltschug is 33,000 rubles ($1,164) a night, Vedomosti reported last week, with rates ranging up to 250,000 rubles.
Today there are 20 five-star hotels in Moscow, which account for 35 percent of the market, Vedomosti writes, citing the Knight Frank real estate firm.
