Downtown Cairo’s Grand Continental Hotel is being redeveloped into a 250-key five-star business hotel, with investments estimated at EGP 1.7 bn, after the state began tearing it down in early January, Invest-Gate reports.

In parallel with engineering studies and designs, demolition work has been completed for the dilapidated hotel building, which was first announced in August 2016 by the Egyptian General Company for Tourism and Hotels (EGOTH), for being “a threatening humanitarian disaster,” according to a ministerial statement on June 20.

The new establishment is reimagined with the same architectural style as the old one, considering the original building’s structural footprint and external borders, while also preserving its historic value, which dates back to the 1860s, the statement underlined.

It will be reconstructed to feature multiple conference halls and dining outlets, in addition to a health club and gym. This comes alongside the provision of a mixed-use area, comprising a wide range of commercial retail stores, complemented by 691 underground car parking lots.

Overlooking Opera Square and Azbakiya Botanical Garden, the Grand Continental Hotel (aka the Continental-Savoy) is one of Cairo’s architectural landmarks and was built as part of the old government’s modernization projects that included the execution of the Suez Canal.