The owners of the five-star Maybourne Riviera hotel, which overlooks the Principality of Monaco from a rocky outcrop in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, are reportedly due in court next week to face accusations of multiple planning violations.
The Maybourne Riviera, formerly Vista Palace, was purchased at auction by Qatari royal Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in 2014.
Over the subsequent seven years, the glass and steel edifice underwent a major reconstruction project that transformed the once dilapidated site into one of the most recognisable luxury hotels on the Riviera. Designed by the celebrated French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, whose other projects include the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, the Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris, and the MoNa Residence in Monaco, the construction side of the project was handled by an Irish company headed by property mogul Paddy McKillen. It is this latter element that has caused controversy.
In February 2021, the Apave Group, an international construction engineering company, reportedly threatened to pull out of the project in a letter sent to the company managing the build, the Société d’Exploitation et de Détention Hôtelière Vista (SEDH). According to a report by Monaco Matin, the letter warned the SEDH of “significant material and immaterial risks” and of the Group’s concerns about the “stability of structures at the end of the work” due to the works carried out by McKillen’s company and contractors. The letter also noted “numerous non-compliances in fire safety”.
A few months later, the certified inspection office responsible for overseeing the project is understood to have alerted the SEDH to a number of potential building infractions and violations of local planning regulations, including excess square meterage. According to Monaco Matin, it is claimed that the vast majority of the flagged issues were ignored.
Then, in June 2021, a local safety commission reportedly gave the hotel its approval, noting just a handful of “minor issues,” reports Monaco Matin. The favourable review is noted by the local newspaper as being at odds with previous inspections.
It wasn’t until the following year that the extent of the issues relating to the Maybourne Riviera really came to the authorities’ attention. In August 2022, a Roquebrune-Cap-Martin opposition councillor, Marie-Christine Franc de Ferrière, filed a criminal complaint against the hotel. Two agents from the Prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes were sent to investigate and unearthed a number of infractions. They later produced a list four pages long, reports Monaco Matin.
It is this list of violations that will reportedly be the focus of the upcoming court case in Nice between the representatives of the former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. According to the local newspaper, these representatives have told investigators that they were “deceived” by the Irish building company and only discovered the extent of the issues with the property when they received Apave’s letter in February 2021. The credibility of the Irish company has been further questioned by reports that it is not covered by décennale assurance, a mandatory insurance policy for construction projects.
The situation is further complicated by a new permit that was issued by the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin town hall in 2023, allowing the owners of the Maybourne Riviera to “regularise” its excess surface area. These works have not yet been carried out.
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Photo of the Maybourne Riviera hotel in the hills above Monaco, by Monaco Life