Voted 6th best hotel in the World back in 2011 by Trivago travel and hotel website, Ibiza Gran Hotel is once again in the headlines as negotiations continue for a new, ‘advanced' casino to be added to the existing hotel premises.
Plans include moving the location of the current main casino building to a new, purpose built space that will be linked by a corridor to the hotel itself. Ambitious plans for the brand new casino include incorporation of a restaurant and high-tech performance space along with refurbishment, redecoration and a new zone for slot-machines.
The project is the result of a collaboration between the hotel and casino owners, along with acclaimed restauranteurs and brothers Albert y Ferran Adrià, widely said to have revolutionised the World of international cuisine and Ibiza resident and owner of Cirque du Soleil, Mr Guy Laliberté.
The Ibiza Gran Hotel is already a consistently popular resting-pad for visiting celebrities. Famous for its superb location with stunning views of the World Heritage sites of Dalt Vila and Ibiza Cathedral, the hotel is also distinguished by its wonderful light and cool, modern design featuring tasteful works of art. Add its fine restaurant and lush spa facilities and it's easy to understand the hotel's enduring popularity with some of the island's most distinguished visitors. This new development sets to catapult the hotel into a much higher league.
The original casino offered a wide range of games including Black-Jack, American Roulette, Punto Banco and different kinds of Poker spread across the main casino and private gaming rooms.
This project of expansion, described by some as 'an adult-style theme park' and expected to attract around a thousand visitors everyday, is reported to be costing around 2 million euros and will no doubt considerably raise the bar of Ibiza's World-class entertainment portfolio. The combination of accomplished, international performers such as Cirque du Soleil along with the high-end cuisine of the Adriá brothers in a state-of-the-art casino is a completely new concept for the island. Work began at the end of October and the expected date for completion is mid-April 2015.
WORDS | Jane Charilaou PHOTO | Marie-Reine Mattera
