Plans voiced by US company Starwood Hotels&Resorts Worldwide Inc to build a Sheraton hotel in Timisoara, on a land located between hotel complex Continental and Bega store, have stirred disputes at a local level.
On one hand, the two companies between which the hotel will be located disagree with this idea, while, on the other hand, a clock made up of flowers, one of the symbols of this city, is located on the very same grounds. Timisoara City Hall has conducted a poll in order to find the inhabitants' opinion on this issue. A share of 96% of the 61 respondents answered that Timisoara needs a five-star hotel, but 63% of them think that the clock made up of flowers is also a very important place in the city.
Moreover, Timisoara City Hall organised an exhibition in order to get the agreement of the local administration officers, architects, the hotels' representatives and the ecologist organisations in this city. The exhibition called "Preliminary Survey for Hotel Sheraton Location" displayed works of the students from Timisoara-based Construction and Architecture University.
The exhibition was supposed to lead to discussions on this issue with all the involved parties, but things did not go that way. "These discussions will probably be carried in other places, maybe around the corners," Radu Radoslav, Director of the Urbanism Department within Timisoara City Hall, maintained.
He added that the surface of land required for this project would be granted by an auction and would be ceded for 49 years. "Starwood Hotels is the only company to have displayed interest in this land so far, but I think the auction will be attended by more bidders," Radoslav said.
The area's territorial planning might be approved this fall. According to the projects of Starwood Hotels&Resorts Worldwide Inc., the new hotel would have at least 150 rooms, one 600-seat conference hall and other 30 conference rooms with 30 seats. The amount to be invested at Timisoara was not disclosed.
Starwood Hotels has more than 725 hotels in 80 countries, grouped under the brands Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection and W Hotel.
In Eastern Europe, Sheraton hotels have been opened in countries such as Russia, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as Georgia, at Tbilisi. Other hotels working under this brand name are located in Bulgaria, at Sofia, and in Poland, at Warsaw.
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