Milan’s chamber of commerce expects more than 200 new hotels, with more than 24,000 rooms between them, will be built to house visitors to the Universal Exposition in 2015.
Milan’s chamber of commerce expects more than 200 new hotels, with more than 24,000 rooms between them, will be built to house visitors to the Universal Exposition in 2015.
Property companies also foresee positive spin-offs from Expo 2015 for the local stock of hotels and offices. Alex Krystalogianni, head of international property forecasting at Schroder Property Investment, said at the EIRE real estate trade fair on Friday that Milan’s hotel business is now focused extensively on business travellers. ‘There is now a possibility of attracting other tourism to the city,’ she said.
Krystalogianni also forecast that infrastructural improvements in the run-up to Expo 2015 would be accompanied by an improvement in the quality of office space. She noted that currently only some 10% of office space in Milan is Grade A.
Despite market turbulence, Aldo Mazzocco, CEO of Italian property firm Beni Stabili, said that the group’s attitude towards the Milan market has changed little from a year ago. One reason for the sustained confidence are the prospects that have opened up with Expo 2015. Mazzocco said he hoped Milan would take advantage of the opportunity to play catch-up, after kickback scandals in the early 1990s helped to bring new projects to a halt.
‘Milan is facing a magical moment and a great challenge,’ said Carlo Masseroli, city alderman for development issues. ‘2015 represents the date by which the city must be regenerated,’ he told a conference at EIRE, stressing the need to get moving quickly. ‘2015 means that the work must be completed in 2014, and this means that work on these projects must begin in 2010 and that everything must be authorised in the next year or two, not later.’