![]() When completed in 1996 the complex would include a Presidente Intercontinentale hotel, a convention center, a mall and a parking lot for 8,500 cars. More than US$500 million was to be spent on the conversion. The Grupo Gusto bought the shell of the building to convert it into the World Trade Centre Mexico City, an office space, inaugurated by President Carlos Salinas on 19 November 1994. The work was resumed and abandoned several times. In August 1987 it was reported that Hyatt would lend $30 million to the Suárez Group to complete the first 400 rooms on the ten highest levels of what would now be called the Hotel de México Hyatt. The building was unfinished when he died, and remained an unfinished skeleton for many years. Suárez died in Mexico City in 1987 at the age of 91. įinancing problems were caused by the peso crises of 19. Īs delays continued there was growing tension between Suárez and the elite of the PRI, which disputed claims that the hotel could symbolize the enlightened sovereignty of the state, resolving social, urban and political problems and refused to authorize discounted loans to complete the project. There was some question about whether the state-administered mills, which were running below capacity, could be valued that high. That investment could perhaps be realized by liquidation of the sugar mills. Suárez, now 82 years old, said the hotel was worth around 1,200 million pesos in its current state, but still needed 800 million to be completed. Īn interview in 1978 noted that progress had been very slow, caused in part by changes in engineers. įrom the 1970s until his death Suárez put most of his energy into the project, which grew out of control. He claimed it would act as a vehicle for reconciliation of postwar ethnic, linguistic and geopolitical differences, and would help reunite the physical and social urban fabric of Mexico city. Rossell presented the project to Franco-Mexican diplomats at the Grand Palais in Paris, accompanied by Siqueros and the Minister of Tourism Miguel Alemán Valdés. It included a scale model, drawings and photographs. In 1971 an exhibition about the hotel was shown in Paris, Madrid and New York. The adjacent Polyforum by the well-known dissident artist David Alfaro Siqueiros was used to reinforce this message. Rossell used neohumanistic jargon like "global communication and fraternity" to promote the idea that the hotel project reconciled capitalism with revolution. History īoth Suárez and Rossell were closely associated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Parking would be provided for 2,000 cars.Ī heliport would be equipped with customs facilities.Ī high-speed monorail would connect the hotel to the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca. There would be four cafeterias, six restaurants and 13 bars, with a revolving restaurant on the top floor, five reception halls, a 3000-person convention room, a 21,500 square feet (2,000 m 2) spiral-shaped shopping mall, a theatre, museum and so on. There would be one covered and one open air panoramic terrace. It was to be 51 stories high with 1,508 hexagonal rooms that could house 3,100 guests.Ī panoramic elevator would be able to carry 100 tourists, and 19 other elevators would carry normal passengers. The hotel was to be the largest in the Americas, 237 metres (778 ft) high with 1,500 rooms. The Parque de Lama was used as the site for the project. The project included both public and private investment. It would be the tallest, largest and most technologically advanced building in the country. ![]() The hotel was to be open in time to receive visitors to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The architect was Guillermo Rossell de la Lama. He conceived the idea of building a major business and tourist complex named Mexico 2000, centered around the huge Hotel de México. Suárez had made his fortune in various infrastructure projects including water supply systems, canals and railways, and in sugar mills that were later nationalized. In 1966 the entrepreneur Manuel Suárez y Suárez embarked on building the Gran Hotel de México.
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