He is like the Mona Lisa. Crippa told why he bought the Hotel Ukraina on the Maidan and did not buy the nearby Kozatskyi Hotel

He told about this in an interview‘i Forbes Ukraine.

“Hotel Ukraine is like the Mona Lisa.” She is so unique,” said the businessman. — “My grandfather, Kravchenko Ivan Fedorovych, was the head of the trade union of cultural workers of Ukraine. His office was in the House of Trade Unions, as a child I often came to him and saw this hotel, which was then Moscow.”

According to Crippa, it is symbolic that the hotel was renamed to Ukraine on the tenth anniversary of independence.

“For me, this is a symbol of a broken system. An iconic, legendary asset that no longer exists and will never exist, one of a kind. Therefore, it is impossible to name or calculate its true price,” he said. — “There is nothing even close to which it can be compared and tied to.”

Crippa believes that he paid a fair price for Hotel Ukraine, and the implementation of the business project is planned after the end of the war.

“We cannot talk about a business project while the war is going on,” he said. — “After the war, I would like to have a classy luxury hotel there. Perhaps “Four Seasons Ukraine”. Maybe something else.”

Crippa is convinced that the value of the asset will double or even triple in the future, after the war.

The businessman also reported that his specialists had also assessed the condition of the Kozatsky Hotel, which is also located on Independence Square, before the privatization tender.

“The first thing we saw was that the two first floors of the 9,500 m Kozatskyi were almost completely flooded. Second, the ceiling height is 2.7 m. In Ukraine, for comparison, it is 3.2 m,” he said. This allows for ventilation, air conditioning and other systems during the reconstruction, added the businessman.

“Kozatskyi is easier to demolish and build something modern, and no one will allow this to be done – the Maidan has its own landscape ensemble. As a result, we will receive a lot of complaints from everyone around us,” said Crippa. — “We decided that we will enter the competition for up to 400 million hryvnias, and then withdraw.”

As reported, on September 18, Ola Fine LLC of Maxim Krippa became the winner of the auction for the privatization of Hotel Ukraine.

Three participants competed for ownership of the hotel complex, and the value of the object increased 2.4 times compared to the starting price — from UAH 1.05 billion to UAH 2.51 billion.

On October 30, the State Property Fund announced that the winner of the auction had transferred UAH 3 billion, including VAT, to the state for the hotel.

Hotel Ukraine was built in 1961, it has 14 floors and 365 rooms, a restaurant, six conference rooms and additional infrastructure.