New images of Le Provençal, the long-awaited super-prime redevelopment of a historic Art Deco building on the French Riviera, are published today by Spear’s for the first time.
The project is nearly complete, according to billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist John Caudwell, whose firm Caudwell is the developer of the scheme. The first owners are due to move in later this month, occupying some of the 41 residences, which are valued at up to €43 million (£37.5 million). The gross value of the development is around £300 million.
The rebirth of the historic Art Deco building in Juan-les-Pins has been a long time in the making.
The structure first opened its doors in 1927 as Hotel Le Provençal and quickly earned a reputation as a playground for the beau monde of the time. Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ella Fitzgerald are among those to have frequented the cocktail bar. Ella Fitzgerald once famously appeared at her hotel room window and gave an impromptu performance for passers-by who had been attending the 1963 Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival.
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However, in 1977, the hotel closed for refurbishment and never reopened. The building, which is one of the tallest and largest landmarks in the town of Juan-les-Pins, close to Antibes, subsequently fell into a state of disrepair. It was acquired by British property developer Cyril Dennis, who devised plans for its redevelopment. But these were shelved when he could no longer service the debt that he had taken on to fund the project.
This created an opportunity for Caudwell to swoop. The Phones 4u founder acquired the former hotel in 2014, in a deal that included other assets such as a building that has been redeveloped and launched as Parc du Cap and a choice 3.65-acre plot on Cap D’Antibes, neighbouring Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, which is now home to one vast property, Domaine de la Belle Étoile.
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The property, which boasts a lawn that doubles up as a helipad and a modernist house designed by Nice-based architectural practice Atelier Baraness + Cawker, is understood to be valued by Caudwell at around €60 million.
However, Le Provençal is the company’s most ambitious project on the Riviera.
‘It’s really the jewel in the crown of the whole coastline,’ said Caudwell, who added that around 10 of the 41 residences had been sold, while his sales team had around 20 ‘very hot leads’ for the remaining properties. ‘It deserves to sell well, because the quality, the facilities, the internal space planning, everything – it just screams quality. I would be surprised if we’ve got many apartments left by this time next year.’
Caudwell told Spear’s buyers and interested parties are of ‘all nationalities, with the exception of the obvious’.
‘Whereas the Russians used to be very, very active in the South of France 10 years ago, that long since came to an end. But Americans are very interested in this part of the world, as well as Brits and French people themselves. So there’s a whole host of different nationalities. Some will use it as a primary residence and some as a holiday home.’
Last year, Caudwell told an interviewer that he wouldn’t want somebody who ‘had achieved their money by criminal behaviour’ to purchase a residence in his landmark London development, 1 Mayfair. He added that he hoped buyers would be people ‘who have good moral values and so on’.
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Of Le Provençal, he told Spear’s: ‘I don’t want to sound too pompous about it, but we want a nice community of people as part of the pride of doing it. There’s pride in having a building that’s full of people that are credible people and have done special things in the world. It’s not a prerequisite, exactly, but it’s an added bonus. It’s certainly an objective.’
The ‘biggest challenge of the project,’ Caudwell revealed was ‘the French authorities’.
‘They’re very, very difficult to deal with,’ he said, noting an exception in the form of the local mayor (‘He was fine’).
‘There’s multiple different groups of people that you have to deal with, then you’ve got all the other legislative bodies that have an involvement. By the time you’re done, you’re really fighting against lots of issues with different organisations.’ One bureaucratic organisation ‘wanted us to change the colour of the building to a sort of an ochre,’ Caudwell said. ‘It’s always been white. It was white for its entire existence. And it looks great white.’
The façade of the original building (which is indeed white) remains much as it would have appeared in 1927 when it was first unveiled.
Several of the hotel’s original public areas have been retained, restored and modernised, such as a porte cochère, ‘grand reception lobby’ and a rotunda replete with an Ottoman style domed gold leaf ceiling. Interior architecture is from Affin Design, which has also dressed some of the apartments. Caudwell’s firm will also work alongside owners to assist with interior design projects as required.
There are additional amenities, including a cinema with 16 reclining seats upholstered in café au lait coloured leather and a 2,155 sq ft health spa, which is complemented by a sauna, a hammam, cold plunge pool, ice fountain, hydrotherapy jets and soothing hot stone benches. A spacious gym with tasteful natural wood-finish equipment opens out onto shared gardens.
There is space for parking for 177 cars underneath the building, while guests of residents are permitted to use the pier of the neighbouring Hôtel Belles Rives to moor their tender when coming ashore, perhaps from a superyacht anchored in the bay or at Port Vauban, the Antibes marina that is the largest on the Riviera, larger still than Monaco’s Port Hercule. Access via Belles Rives, another storied Riviera gem, comes thanks to a partnership that has seen the hotel provide training to the staff of Le Provençal.
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Details of a restaurant headed by a high-profile executive chef are expected to be released soon.
Le Provençal residences go up to 9,440 sq ft in size, and include lateral apartments, penthouses and garden villas. Sales are through Caudwell itself, via sales director Lars Christiaanse, Savills and Sotheby’s in Nice.
