As the management contract between Compania Hotelieră Intercontinenal România S.A. and Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) ends on 31.12.2021, the Intercontinental Hotel thus acquires a new identity from 01.01.2022 and will be renamed Grand Hotel Bucharest, according to the announcement made by the owners.
The hotel will continue its activity and will offer its guests the same hotel services as before, in accordance with the position and reputation it has in the hotel landscape, it is also shown in the ad. At the same time, the property will be part of a major renovation and modernization project starting in 2022. This transformation process aims to bring the property up to the latest hotel standards to meet the current demands of guests.
The hotel was built between 1968-1971, in cooperation with the company “Intercontinental Hotel Corporation”, with a height of 88 meters and 23 floors, according to the plans of a group of architects: Dinu Hariton, project manager, Gheorghe Nădrag, Ion Moscu and Romeo Stefan Belea.
Intercontinental Hotel Corporation “from the USA provided technical assistance and obtained 10 years of cooperation in the operation of the hotel complex.
The Intercontinental Hotel from Bucharest was the second tallest building in the country, after Casa Scânteii, today known as Casa Presei Libere.
The InterContinental Hotel was officially inaugurated on May 14, 1971, while the first guest of the hotel was registered on February 20, 1971, being an American citizen. Over time, it has housed a number of personalities, including Kurt Waldheim, UN Secretary-General Gustav Heinemann, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, American tycoon David Rockefeller, Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, etc., according to the “Dictionary of Monuments and famous places in Bucharest “(Meronia Publishing House, 2011).
The land on which the InterContinental Hotel was built, originally belonged to the Cernica Monastery. In the 19th century, it became the property of the Hagi-Moscow family. In 1810, the governor Ion Hagi-Moscu erected a large multi-storey building here. His nephew sold the house to the City Hall, which used it between 1882 and 1912. It was later demolished and a new building was built. Remaining vacant, the land was used for the training exercises of the Capital Gendarmes Regiment.
During the interwar period, a summer garden was opened here, and after that it hosted a restaurant, which was demolished after 1944 and the Krateyl Circus was installed on the land, which operated here until the construction of the Bucharest State Circus (1958-1960, architect Nicolae Porumbescu). There were many shops and breweries in the Krateyl Circus area, which were demolished to make way for the future hotel and National Theater.