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Qataris build a CHF 550 million luxury resort on the Bürgenstock Alpine palace fit for a sheik Translation / Blick, 5 August 2016 https://akomag.ch/pics/files/Newsroom/16_08_05_BH%26R_Monitoring_Blick_Alpenpalast.pdf Guido Schätti (text) and Stefano Schröter (photos) The Emirate of Qatar is suspected of financing terrorist militias in Syria and Libya. In Switzerland, the sheiks have found a better use for their natural-gas billions: they buy old hotels and transform them into palaces. The bill so far amounts to over a billion Swiss francs. The Schweizerhof in Bern and Royal Savoy in Lausanne are theirs. The undisputed showpiece of the collection, however, is the Bürgenstock. This mountain ridge above Lake Lucerne at alt. 1100 metres is an icon of Swiss tourism. The first prestige hotel opened here 143 years ago. Half of Hollywood threw parties on the Bürgenstock in the 1950s and 60s. Now the sheiks have discovered it. On this kilometre-long strip of land that’s only a few dozen metres in width, they are investing CHF 550 in erecting residence suites, a spa, two luxury hotels, a clinic disguised as a hotel, and a golf course. Anyone making the ascent up the ridge from Obbürgen, Canton Nidwalden first sees the luxury residence suites. The dearest and largest are cut into the rock face on the left and offer views of the deep-blue lake. The views from the cheaper ones still take in the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau to the south-west. This is where Bruno Schöpfer (60) has his office: he is the Managing Director of Katara Hospitality Switzerland AG and the sheiks’ representative in Switzerland. Schöpfer has been around. Having grown up in Switzerland’s Entlebuch region, he spent most of his career abroad. For 20 years he managed the establishments of global chains such as Mandarin Oriental and Radisson. Most recently he was at the helm of Mövenpick. But it was on the Bürgenstock that he found his true vocation. He is able to bring all his experience to bear on the project. He needs to, as any errors committed during the planning stages will come back to bite with a vengeance. If the specifications miss out the water hose in the toilets, the Arab guests turn their noses up. If the flows of goods and guests are not properly managed in and around the hotel complex, things will quickly fall apart. “We don’t have a general contractor,” reveals Schöpfer. They only look at their margins before making themselves scarce. Schöpfer assumes personal charge of everything. He concludes nothing but individual contracts with construction companies and suppliers, then checks that everything is done the way he wants it. He may be found storming around the huge site in a golf cart, foot on the floor. Schöpfer knows every stone, every plant, every little corner. He is full of anecdotes. “I had to give way to the cantonal director of construction here,” he says, pointing to a corner of the edgeless outdoor infinity pool. Guests will be swimming here way up high above Lake Lucerne. The pool is one of the highlights of the massive spa, a “wow experience” says Schöpfer, proudly. Yet the right-hand front corner of the pool had to be re-aligned to safeguard a tree with a preservation order. Schöpfer complains in no uncertain terms about interfering politicians and officials hemming him in with conditions and stipulations. “They think only of themselves and covering their backs with as much red tape as possible. But no one’s thinking of the overall scheme.” Envious nay-sayers and nostalgics with a longing for the past accuse him of gigantism and of betraying the historical heritage. Schöpfer, though, is far too wise not to realise the true value of the Bürgenstock’s past. The natural environment and preservation orders added an extra CHF 43 million to the bill. “But we don’t © AKOMAG Corporate Communications AG, Stans/Luzern 1PDF Image | Qataris build a CHF 550 million luxury resort on the Burgenstock
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