Cristiano Ronaldo’s pet project to build a lavish new luxury hotel in Paris has been hit by a string of delays and may not finally open for another four years, MailOnline has learned.
The £53million four-star hotel, on the left bank of the River Seine near the Austerlitz train station, was originally meant to open in 2021 so will be at least six years behind schedule when it finally welcomes guests.
Building work has only belatedly started in recent weeks on the hotel, which is planned to feature 210 rooms, a rooftop bar and a pool with panoramic views over the French capital.
The legendary Portuguese star was still playing at Juventus when it should have opened. He has since moved back to – and fallen out with – Manchester United and is now playing in Saudi Arabia but will almost certainly be retired when it finally opens its doors.
Well-placed sources said the Covid pandemic and lockdown had also been a factor in the delay.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s planned luxury hotel in Paris has been beset by delays and now won’t open until 2027 – some six years behind the original schedule
The £53m four-star hotel on the banks of the River Seine boasts panoramic views of Paris
Experts said the delay was a blow to Ronaldo, who may well be retired by the time it opens
But a Paris hotel business insider said: ‘The delays must be a blow to Ronaldo who was reputedly personally invested in this project – and if he’s long retired when it opens it perhaps won’t attract the same international attention as a great at the peak of his powers would have either.’
The 2021 opening target was revealed five years ago when the details of the project were revealed by the Pestana Group, a Madeira-based tourism and leisure multinational, which is working with Ronaldo’s CR7 brand on the hotel in a 50/50 partnership.
The delays are understood to have been partially caused by a public inquiry sparked by the submission of the hotel plans in May 2019 and subsequent challenges by city politicians.
Once it finally opens the hotel will become Cristiano’s first in France and his sixth in the world with his partners at the Pestana Hotel Group, owned by millionaire Dionisio Pestana and founded by his dad Manuel.
But pushing it back to least 2027, a year after the next World Cup, when the football star will almost certainly have called time on his glittering international and club career and his longtime rival Lionel Messi will have quit current club Paris Saint-Germain.
It has been described as the largest so far of the Pestana CR7 brand hotels, first launched in Cristiano’s native Madeira seven years ago before expanding to capital cities Lisbon, Madrid, New York and Marrakech.
The hotel is part of an ambitious project called Austerlitz A7A8, which will eventually include a business park and student residence as well as shops and 2,000 bicycle spaces.
An exterior view of the Pestana CR7 hotel in the Portuguese city Lisbon which is already open
Ronaldo pictured inside one of the rooms at the Pestana Hotel Palace in Lisbon in 2015
Cristiano, facing calls to be thrown out of Saudi Arabia where he now plays his football after he appeared to respond to rival fans’ Messi taunts on Tuesday night by grabbing his crotch, said when his new hotel was on course for a 2021 opening: ‘It makes perfect sense for the Pestana CR7 brand to be implanted in Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world.
‘It’s a destination that combines the perfect match of elegance and sophistication of the brand.’
The opening delay means the world’s best-paid sportsman, who signed for Saudi side Al-Nassr after his explosive Piers Morgan interview late last November made him a Man United outcast, will have moved into the giant new family mansion he is having built in Quinta da Marinha near Lisbon long before the first guests can check in.
Building costs on his new Portuguese property, set to be Cristiano’s main retirement home with partner Georgina Rodriguez and their children, have reportedly rocketed to around £17m because of his desire for perfection and the soaring price of materials. But it is expected to be finished by this summer.
He and his partner Georgina Rodriguez are currently having a giant family home built at Quinta da Marinha
A video released on social media shows the veteran Portuguese forward appearing to grab his crotch after supporters chanted the name of his rival Lionel Messi after Al-Nassr’s 2-0 defeat
The clip shows Ronaldo seeming to hold his genital area after fans shouted: ‘Messi! Messi!’
The bureaucratic hitches that have delayed the Paris hotel opening have been ‘fully ironed-out’ according to one well-placed insider who said last night he saw little risk the new date would be put back.
Ronaldo will not be the first footballing hotelier. His former Man United teammates Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs are behind Hotel Football, which sits in the shadow of Old Trafford.
As well as opening hotels with the Pestana Group and expanding his property empire with house and apartment purchases in Spain and Portugal in recent years, Cristiano has also moved into the hair transplant and gym business.
His net worth has been estimated at £362 million pounds and his contract with his new club is worth an eye-watering £175m-a-year.
Although his sister Elma Aveiro announced the closure of the Madeira clothes store CR7 named after the striker at the start of his last year, it didn’t affect online sales of CR7-branded clothes and accessories.
Georgina, 29, also has a bright future ahead of her after going from a £10-an-hour shop worker to a household name with nearly 50 million Instagram followers since the star couple met and started dating less than seven years ago.
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