The historic monument Oscar Maugsch Palace in the heart of Bucharest will be turned into a luxury hotel following a 20-million euro investment, Profit.ro reported.
Israeli real estate investor Amir Dayan bought the hotel in 2019 for a reported 28 million euros, 40% more than the valuation value. Reports at the time said it would be turned into a 5-star hotel.
The palace which was owned by the Romanian Commercial Bank will be transformed following an investment estimated at 20 million euros, according to documents analyzed by Profit.ro.
Amir Dayan was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1974 to a poor family, and achieved great success due to astute investments in the real estate market. He has been active in the European hotel business and real estate field, mainly in the Netherlands, UK, and Germany since 2005.
Built in 1906, the Oscar Maugsch Palace sits across the square from the palace of the University of Bucharest and was at one time the headquarters of Generala Insurance Company. It was nationalized in 1948 when the communists took over Romania.
Bucharest Palace takes up 4,000 square meters in the heart of the city, with another 12,000 square meters of usable space. The building is prime real estat, probably the reason Amir Dayan and his family chose the glamorous investment.
The hotel will have approximately 157 rooms, arranged on three floors and attic. On the ground floor, the inner courtyard between Buildings A and B will be covered with a glass skylight, being transformed into the hotel’s access lobby.
The ground floor will also include spaces for restaurants, events room, meeting rooms, and in the basement there will be a SPA area, according to documents submitted by the investor to authorities.
The building is a Class A historical monument. It was modeled on palaces on Paris’ celebrated Bd. Haussmann in Paris. Oscar Maugsch, an architect of German origin studied in Dresden and was an architect at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
It initially housed one of the first insurance companies in Romania – Societatea Generale de Asigurari GENERALA. That company was founded in the Danube port of Braila in 1832 and its main purpose was the insurance of goods during naval transport.
Romania’s BCR bank sells historic palace for ’25-35 million euros’
