Beirut Hilton razed to the ground

The old devastated Hilton hotel that never celebrated its opening in April 1975 was razed to the ground yesterday to make way for a new $100 million five-star hotel.

The old T-shaped 22-storey building was imploded with 350 kg of dynamite placed inside the hotel located near Starco centre in downtown Beirut.

People gathered in areas overlooking the implosion that was aired live on two national TV stations. Within 10 seconds the 30-year-old structure was reduced to rubble.

The four-star Hilton, which never feted its opening due to the civil war, was destroyed by roving militiamen during the infamous room-to-room War of the Hotels.

The War of the Hotels between the then eastside-based Christian militias and the westside-based Palestinian-backed Muslim military groups broke out in 1975 leading to the division of Beirut and eventually the whole country into two de facto states.

The borderline, also known as the green line in downtown Beirut, survived until the conclusion of the war in 1990. It is within this zone that the Hilton stood for 27 years between 1975 and 2002.

The Societe Mediterraneene des Grands Hotels (SMGH), a Saudi-run firm, bought the old Hilton from its Lebanese owners in the 1980s and wanted to demolish it rather than renovate.

The firm started preparations to do so in the 1990s but could not go ahead with its plans due to restrictions by Solidere, the real estate firm entrusted by the government to rebuild downtown Beirut.

Solidere's rigid construction rules banned the demolition of buildings until 2000, when Solidere realised how problematic the location of the old Hilton was.

As soon as Solidere realised that the building had to be razed to preserve the aesthetics of the downtown area, it supported SMGH to secure the permit to demolish the building and make way for the new one.

The new 420-room hotel, which is expected to be managed by five-star operators on par with the Hyatt Regency or Sheraton, will be 17 storeys high and feature an 800 to 1,000-square-metre pool.