Skanska to build Stockholm’s largest hotel for about SEK 500 M

Skanska has been contracted to build Stockholm’s largest hotel – the new Clarion Hotel at the Norra Bantorget square in central Stockholm. A letter of intent has been signed and the contract is expected to be signed in the near future. The contract sum of about SEK 500 M, will be included in order bookings for the fourth quarter of 2005. The customer is Buchardt, one of Norway’s best-known entrepreneurs in the real estate and hotel industry. The hotel will be managed by Choice Hotels under the Clarion Hotel brand. The building, comprising a total of 29,000 square meters in 11 stories, will have 558 rooms, a conference facility for 800 participants, restaurant, bar as well as a leisure and fitness center. The new Clarion Hotel has been designed by Gert Wingårdh. Construction will begin in the near future and the hotel is scheduled to be completed in January 2008. “This is an important cornerstone for Choice Hotels in the Group’s development,” says Petter A Stordalen, CEO of Choice Hotels Scandinavia. “This will be one of Stockholm’s most attractive hotels, in design and location. There is always room for a large, new and exciting hotel in Stockholm with the right location. It increases the attractiveness of Stockholm’s trendiest hotel district and Stockholm as a tourist and business city.” “It is highly pleasing that we have been entrusted by Buchardt for this project in Sweden. We have favorable experience of one another as a result of a number of projects in Norway,” says Petter Eiken, Executive Vice President, Skanska AB. In 2003, Skanska also completed the Clarion Hotel on Södermalm in Stockholm.