After the grandiose reconstruction the oldest and the tallest hotel in the Arctic, "Arktika" was opened.

The hotel "Arktika" has become a symbol of Murmansk long time ago, when its image was not like a snow-white "shamrock" of today, it was like a four-story stone building. Being built in 1933, it immediately became a center of the capital of the Arctic. That’s why the Nazi planned to celebrate never took grip of the Soviet Arctic, famous people, who visited Murmansk, retold about it, and even immortalized the hotel in their works. And after construction in the early 1980s of a new, the highest in the region 15-storey building, the "Arktika" firmly received the title of one of the main symbols of Murmansk along with the Alyosha monument.

However, for the constructors such a significance of the hotel became honor and burden simultaneously. It is much more difficult, as builders say, to restore the old object than to build a new one. And in the case with the reconstruction of the "Arktika", the problem was really unusual: to turn the hotel into the most modern hotel in the region, while maintaining the familiar look of one of the last examples of Soviet modernism.

And to the credit of all project participants, it became entirely possible. Last Saturday, the opening of the new "Arktika" turned into a real celebration with the participation of the authorities of the city and the region, builders and investors.

- The reconstruction project took three years, directly the construction work took 27 months - said, the mayor of Murmansk Alexey Weller, while opening the ceremony - Today we can see the result, and the citizens can be sure that the result is worthy

According to the words of the head of the city, the reconstruction was preceded by complex financial negotiations, as a result the city could save 50 percent of the stocks of the hotel in municipal property. In addition, the investments, which amounted more than 1.8 billion rubles, were invested fully by the co-owner, the international hotel chain "AZIMUT Hotels" with the support of Sberbank. It means, that these finances were not distracted from the budget of Murmansk.

- This hotel is very important in our portfolio, - mentioned Walter Neumann, the general manager of the company “AZIMUT Hotels”, which chain includes the “Arktika”. - This is the first hotel in the Arctic with the “smart” concept, maximal adapted for business visits and business events. It combines hotel rooms and offices, rooms for conferences, meetings and presentations. We incorporated the latest energy-efficient and heat-saving technologies. The hotel has the first in the region two-level parking.

Walter Neumann said, that the company attached great importance to Murmansk as the main platform for the development of tourism and business between Russia and Scandinavia, and the “Arktika” would be one of the bases of this development.

Then the head of Murmansk Alexey Veller as an owner has received from the head of the general contractor of the reconstruction - the "RD Construction" - symbolic key to the hotel. The surprise was the appearance at the opening ceremony of another key – the key, that was handed over at the opening of the former "Arktika" in 1984. Alexey Weller gave it to the new co-owners of the hotel, the representatives of "AZIMUT Hotels".

And the "Arktika" opened a new milestone in its history, as, however, and a new milestone in the development of Murmansk.