TIRANA, June 14 – The landmark Dajti hotel in Tirana’s central boulevard, once the capital’s city sole luxury hotel during the post-WWII decades of communist rule, will finally be reconstructed under a three-year €16 million project serving as a facility for the central bank’s operations.
The reconstruction project comes seven years after the country’s central bank purchased for €30 million the landmark Italian architecture state-run hotel that had fallen in disuse under a controversial acquisition which the then-opposition Socialist Party called an operation to fill up crisis-hit state coffers.
Until 2010, the government had repeatedly failed to sell the hotel to private investors while plans to turn it into foreign ministry offices were dropped.
Reacting to media reports of lack of transparency in the selection of the company that will make the hotel’s reconstruction, the central bank it had applied a ‘limited international tender’ procedure under which only candidates invited by the central bank can submit bids.
The country’s central bank applies the limited tender procedure in case, goods, construction works or services are available only by a limited number of bidders, small-amount tenders or when an open tender is not deemed suitable due to confidentiality and reliability grounds.
The Bank of Albania tenders are held under special procurement procedures envisaged in the central bank’s regulation and do not apply to public procurement law under which all state run institutions publish their calls on the Public Procurement Agency.
The central bank said seven foreign companies expressed interest to reconstruct the former Dajti Hotel building after an invitation published on the Financial Times in October 2016. The winning company will be announced after the signing of the contract, says the central bank.
The project’s reconstruction and restoration will be led by Italian architect Marco Petreschi who also carried out the reconstruction of the central bank’s headquarters.
In late 2015, Albania’s central bank building, a historic 1938 building and landmark in Tirana’s central bank, was reconstructed under a €12 million project, upgrading the infrastructure in one of the country’s most important institutions for Albania’s economic and financial stability.
The reconstruction, carried out by an Italian firm in three and a half years, preserved the rational architecture of its Italian architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, improving the working conditions and adding a museum which features rare items from the collections of the Bank of Albania which has been operating since 1913, soon after Albania’s independence.
Once Tirana’s pride until the early 1990s when it fell into disuse, the Dajti hotel is a four-storey building that had 85 rooms constructed during World War II under the country’s Italian occupation. The hotel lying on a 1-hectare area was considered the sole Western facility under the dark years of communism also offering events of ballroom dance and banned Rock and Jazz music for the elite and representatives of diplomatic missions in Albania.
“The building’s reconstruction will enable the necessary facilities for the bank’s employees to carry out their duties, but also restore the historical and cultural value this building preserves in the capital city’s memory. The building’s ground floor will preserve its original functional facilities serving citizens and being open to the public while the remaining part will be adjusted to serve the Bank of Albania activity,” the central bank said in a statement.
Dajti hotel
Built in the 1930s by Gherardo Bosio, a Florentine architect of the 20th century rationalist school, and designed by Gio Ponti, the father of modern European design, the building is just a short distance from the Bank of Albania headquarters.
From the historical perspective, Dajti Hotel represents one of the most prominent and coveted buildings to the people of Tirana. It featured elegant and high-level furnishings of a sophisticated kind. At the regional level, it was for a long time considered the most modern hotel in the Balkans.
Despite the damage suffered during the past years, the project foresees restoring the building to its original state and splendour, and adjusting it to service central bank’s operations, says the central bank.
“The restoration project is based on the original design of architect Gherardo Bosio, but adjusted to the standards of the new century, together with the green surrounding. Featuring a very rich library, this building will be a window ensuring direct contact with the public, particularly researchers, academics, students and the media,” says the Bank of Albania.
