by A faded Jazz Age hotel on the French Riviera is to find new life as a luxury residential development aimed at the super-rich.
Hôtel Provençal is a large 10-storey building on the Cap d’Antibes, a chic, moneyed Mediterranean resort. It was a playground for the rich and famous, visited by the likes of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin.
It was where Ernest Hemingway would drink; where Coco Chanel designed her beach pajamas for her periods; where Ella Fitzgerald stood on the audience from her balcony in 1960. But now, it has been closed for almost 50 years.
Built in 1926 by the American financier Frank Jay Gould, the 200-room Hôtel Provençal quickly became an exclusive, glamorous destination – and a magnet for the stars.
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, who moved to the French Riviera in 1924, rented a villa on the same street (now also a hotel) and that was where he wrote The Night is Tender.
Sun-soaked promenades and unruly wealthy visitors formed the backdrop of the novel, with its protagonists, Dick and Nicole Diver, believed to be based on a wealthy expat couple the Fitzgeralds befriended in France. The book begins with a description of the town, the fictional Hôtel des Étrangers and its “bright tan prayer rug of a beach”.
“We are coming home in the fall, but I don’t want to,” Fitzgerald wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, in 1926. “I want to live and die on the French Riviera.”
“We’re coming home in the fall, but I don’t want to. I want to live and die on the French Riviera.”
F. Scott Gerald
In later years, Hôtel Provençal would receive Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, The Rolling Stones. But in 1977, it all came to an end.
The Gould family sold the hotel to Paris-based jeweler Alexandre Reza in 1972. There were reportedly disputes over Reza’s plans for the property, as well as staff wages. In 1977, Reza closed the hotel for renovations that never happened.
The hotel has since closed, with some flimsy attempts to rescue it. In 2014, it was acquired by John Caudwell, the British billionaire businessman and founder of Phones 4u. He bought it from property developer Cyril Dennis, who intended to turn it into luxury apartments.
“Le Provençal is a magnificent Art Deco palace with an illustrious heritage,” said Caudwell. “Our renovation project is transforming this Côte d’Azur landmark into one of the most popular super-prime residential schemes on the French Riviera, securing the future of this important historic building and creating a legacy for Cap d’Antibes.”
Caudwell’s new £300 million development, due for completion in 2025, will transform the 256,000 sq ft hotel into 39 residences.
These will include terraced apartments, penthouses and garden villas, from one to six bedrooms, as well as three triplexes at the top of the building, each with a private terrace, swimming pool and panoramic views over the coast to Nice, Monaco and Cannes . First apartments are priced between €4 and €8 million, while marquee residences are more than €15 million.
“Our renovation project is transforming this landmark of the Côte d’Azur into one of the most popular ultra-prime residential schemes on the French Riviera.”
John Caudwell, property developer
Meanwhile, the building’s facade is being completely renovated, and its beautiful, Art Deco interior will be renovated – including sculpted wall panels, frescos and ceilings with stepped borders.
Renamed Le Provençal, the former hotel will offer residents six acres of landscaped gardens, as well as an Art Deco cinema, cocktail bar, health spa, restaurant and children’s playroom. And I hope it brings life back into this faded Jazz building.
Lars Christiaanse, sales director at Caudwell, said interest is “extremely high”, with almost a quarter of the apartments sold off-plan to buyers from France, the UK, northern Europe, Germany, America and from Asia. Christiaanse believes the marquee homes and penthouses will appeal to buyers from the Middle East as well as —thanks in part to the F. Scott Fitzgerald effect— “American buyers who want the best trophy homes on the French Riviera”.
“Le Provençal is a beautiful Art Deco palace that is a much-respected architectural landmark in the local region,” said Christiaanse. “F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife chose to live on the French Riviera, which attracts glamor and beautiful scenery, and to this day the location continues to attract visitors and home buyers from around the world. Americans especially love the legacy of F. Scott Fitzgerald.”
