MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. realty and investment group THOR plans to build a five-star hotel complex and amusement park in the vicinity of the Sorochany ski resort near Dmitrov, in the Moscow Region, the company's president Oleg Batrachenko told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
"The new 17,000-square-meter hotel is designed to resemble an Alpine castle. The hotel will comprise over 100 rooms of various categories. The complex will also include several VIP villas," he said.
The company has acquired a 7-hectare area near the village Ilyinskoye, though the seller and the price have not been made public.
Batrachenko said the Alpen Rose Ski&Spa Hotel would be built next to an amusement park, called Travel in Time, including several taverns, cafes and other buildings simulating various historical eras.
The Tirol, a 12,000-square-meter shopping and leisure center, will be built within walking distance of the hotel complex.
"The timber-frame-style shopping and leisure center will be built on a 1.5-hectare area. Timber framing is widely used for tourist and amusement facilities in Austria and Switzerland. The Tirol and Alpen Rose will make up a joint complex," Batrachenko added.
The project is already in the final stage of development and will be ready by spring 2009. The construction of the hotel and the commercial center is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2009.
Around $50 million will be invested in the construction of the hotel, and another $35 million will be allocated for the commercial center. The developer is also considering possible partnerships for the investment project.
THOR expects to recover its investment in five years.
"If we succeed in implementing this project, the company will consider more projects for hotel investment. We are currently executing another project in the U.S.," Batrachenko concluded.
THOR Group is an association of specialized companies, including American, Russian and Kazakh management firms, marketing services structures, an international hedge fund, a realty fund, the THOR Index RTS investment fund and others. THOR Group was founded in 1994 in New York. A Thor United Corp. office opened in Moscow in 2002.
The fund currently finances five realty projects in the U.S. and seven in Russia, including Kazan, Novosibirsk and the Moscow Region, with an overall value of around $500 million. All the facilities are funded within the THOR GUARANT investment program, which accumulates the capital invested by clients through the international Thor Real Estate Master Fund.
