Construction of the Tumas Group's 173-room Hilton hotel and spa in Evian, France, is at an advanced stage. Tumas Group chairman George Fenech invited me to accompany him for a visit to see for myself the progress made since the foundation stone of the €40 million lakefront project was laid last October.
The site is in an idyllic location, separated from Lake Geneva by a public road and within walking distance of the town centre. It is situated right next door to a 100-year-old spa and a foot bridge will connect the hotel to the lakeside, where it has been granted a permit to open a brasserie with 60-80 covers.
It is also about 100 m away from a landing stage where ferries link the town to Lausanne directly opposite Evian on the other side of the lake (about 25 minutes away) and Geneva to the east and also a short trip away.
As luck would have it, it rained practically throughout the time I was in Evian, making a walking tour of the site unpractical. Still, in between meetings with the hotel's designers, Philippe Baude, president of Generim, the French contractor that is building the hotel, and Georges Dahan, president and CEO of Thed International, a hospitality consulting company that is also involved in the project, I had the opportunity to view the site and familiarise myself with the immediate surroundings.
I was shown around by Franco Fenech, who was accompanying his father on the trip, with Tumas Group finance director Ray Sladden.
The hotel consists of two wings at right angles with each other. The wing directly facing Lake Geneva is to consist of eight floors, two of which are below ground. Seven floors have been completed.
The second wing consists of seven floors, some of which are double, including a ballroom. Here five floors have been completed, with two remaining. The two wings face landscaped gardens and a pool, beneath which there is a two-floor car park. "I expect construction to be completed by the end of September," George Fenech told me.
Meanwhile, Tumas Group project manager Alphonse Camilleri said construction work is ahead of schedule. So far there have been no delays, and mechanical and electrical work on the lower floors has already begun.
"The hotel is scheduled to open on June 1, 2006," Mr Fenech said. "We are currently negotiating to have the spa within the hotel's premises, to be operated by a prestigious company in the beauty therapy field.
"We are also considering entering a joint venture with the Danone Group, which operates the spa and thermal baths next door, to make use of its facilities. These are truly unique since they use the world-renowned Evian water in its purest form.
"In addition to this project we are actively pursuing further projects both in Malta and overseas, and will be making a firm announcement in the near future."
Although the hotel will boast of a number of meeting rooms, the town of Evian is to open a 3,000-seat conference centre next year and will be collaborating directly with the Hilton on the use of these facilities.
I also had the opportunity to meet Jean-Philippe Nuel, who is responsible for the hotel's interior design. He sees the hotel as something in between a business and a resort hotel, so he wants to create a good atmosphere through an urban chic, modern design language.
He aims to use warm colours, giving the hotel an individual personality through the use of high quality materials, including chrome and wood, projecting an individual, elegant look.
Mr Nuel is an up-and-coming designer whose latest projects include the construction and interior decoration of a restaurant in Osaka, Japan, and the interior design of hotels for Mariott and Sofitel in Europe and North Africa.