The management of Continental Hotel, formerly Intercontinental Lagos has quietly announced that it has closed down the less than a decade old property for refurbishment.
Continental as it’s called now wrote on its website:
‘’Please be informed that our hotel was closed for refurbishment effective 31st July 2020’’.
‘’The refurbishment commenced immediately and the time of re-opening will be communicated on a later date’.
The statement stressed that ‘’While our hotel remains the preferred choice for business travellers, families and leisure seekers, these extensive refurbishments will allow us to continuously provide first-class hospitality experience to our valued clients’’.
The Lagos Continental Hotel is a 5-Star hotel lying in the popular high-brow area of Lagos, at Plot 52, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
It is the tallest hospitality building in Nigeria, and with its terraces, it offers splendid views of the Lagos city, most importantly the Lagos Port and Lagos skyline.
11 Plc, formerly known as Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, acquired Lagos Continental Hotel through its subsidiary company.
Last year, details emerged that the 358-room InterContinental Hotel would be defragged, following the collapse of talks between the United Kingdom-based property owner and its local partners over terms of rescuing the portfolio from receivership.
The company has been enmeshed in troubles for several quarters due to collapsing debt repayment talks and sundry operational challenges.
A Lagos High Court ordered last year that the defunct Skye Bank Plc, one of the lenders to the N30 billion InterContinental Hotel, to take over the property from its owner, Milan Group, over debts of $29.8 million and N3.8 billion.
InterContinental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, the first property of the U.K-based Milan Group, was commissioned for business in September 2013 by Babatunde Fashola, a former Lagos state governor.
As part of its branding policy for the new asset, the company said it would partner international brand to provide the luxury apartment service, as well as raise the standard of Lagos Continental Hotel from its current condition with significant investment that would transform the hotel into a top brand in the hotel service market.
Meanwhile, sources in the hospitality industry told African Travel Times that the exercise would take between 8 to 9 months and therefore over 90 percent of the workforce have been temporarily laid off.