April date set for first opening in McCulloch's Columbus hotel chain
The first of hotelier Ken McCulloch's proposed new chain, Columbus, is scheduled to open in Monaco next April.
The £20m project will convert the Abela, an 11-year-old hotel in the principality.
Renovation work will begin in September, and the new Columbus Monaco is expected to have 160 bedrooms and 20 suites as well as sporting and meeting facilities.
McCulloch founded the Malmaison hotel chain before selling it in early 1998. He plans to follow Monaco with Columbus hotels in Glasgow and Dallas.
The Dallas Columbus will be a newly-built 150-bedroom hotel, while the Glasgow property will have 145 bedrooms and will also be newly constructed (Caterer, 2 March, page 6).
McCulloch said he wanted to have two hotels in the UK, including Glasgow, two in Europe and three in the USA.
McCulloch's business partner in the venture is US financier Mark Shanker, while the parent group is MHM (McCulloch Hotel Management).