It is not hard to imagine the dancing feet of 1920s socialites in the rotunda ballroom, or Coco Chanel arriving with a present of silk pyjamas for her host.
How about international diplomacy, such as cigar-puffing Winston Churchill holding court on the Hotel Provencal terrace, or Henry Kissinger pleading over dinner with Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, twin sister of Iran's last Shah, to do what she could about the price of oil.
For a touch more royalty, the abdicated Prince Edward and his wife Wallis Simpson stayed there while house-hunting for their post-constitutional crisis life in France. The American actress Grace Kelly visited while filming Hitchcock classic To Catch A Thief, and returned years later as Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco.
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Le Provencal, a former landmark hotel, has been transformed into a new £300 million-plus luxury residence. Photo: Caudwell -
The entrance hall of Villa Jardin at Le Provencal. Photo: Caudwell -
The main reception room of Villa Jardin. Photo: Caudwell -
The swimming pool of Villa Jardin. Photo: Caudwell -
Porte Cochere at Le Provencal. Photo: Caudwell -
The rotunda. Photo: Caudwell -
The health spa's pool. Photo: Caudwell -
Le Provencal's cinema room. Photo: Caudwell -
The gardens of Villa Zelda at Le Provencal. Photo: Caudwell -
The garden reception room of Villa Zelda. Photo: Caudwell -
Villa Zelda's pool. Photo: Caudwell -
The grand reception room of Villa Zelda. Photo: Caudwell -
The main dining room as it was in the late 1920s. Photo: Hotel Provencal Historic Archive -
Another view of the hotel from yesteryear. Photo: Hotel Provencal Historic Archive -
The hotel has played host to a number of famous names over the years, including Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel. Getty Images -
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Getty Images -
Winston Churchill. Getty Images -
Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali. Getty Images -
American writer Ernest Hemingway. Getty Images -
Jackie Kennedy. Getty Images
For more than five decades, Hotel Provencal at the gateway to Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera saw it all. But in 1977, shortly after an attempt on Princess Ashraf’s life as she passed the resort in her Rolls-Royce, the hotel closed for refurbishment and was never reopened.
Successive attempts to redevelop it failed, until British retail billionaire, philanthropist and property developer John Caudwell saw an opportunity to buy the 23,800 square metre art deco building to create Le Provencal, a €347 million (£300m) project which comprises 35 residences - apartments from €4.05 million, villas from €15 million and penthouses above €31 million. Communal facilities include a cinema, health spa, playroom and retail boutiques. The adjacent five-star Hotel Belles Rives provides concierge and lifestyle services.
As part of the deal he became one of the largest single landowners in the local area. Along with Hotel Provencal came Hotel Alba, its sister hotel that had been the scene of a jewellery burglary in 1952 that inspired the Pink Panther movies. Its future is still to be decided. Also in the portfolio was Provencal's former tennis club, staff quarters which are now luxury apartments, car park, villas and Parc du Cap residential development
This week Mr Caudwell hosted a launch party as the Le Provencal properties went on sale after more than a decade of effort to bring the building back to life.
Who’s buying?
Mr Caudwell recognises that only the truly wealthy will be buying the premium properties, which are likely to be used as holiday homes due to their South of France location. He believes buyers would be “international people”, as likely to come from the Middle East as Europe, drawn to the region. “Who wouldn’t want to live here?” he asks. “The South of France is one of the best locations in the world. When I charter my boat, everyone wants to charter it from the South of France.”
What’s for sale?
Among the properties for sale are:
- Villa Zelda: A five-bedroomed 600 square metre trophy residence over two floors, centred around a double-height rotunda, formerly the hotel’s ballroom and restaurant where diners included Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso, Marlene Dietrich and Jackie Kennedy. It is named after former guest Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald and friend of socialite Florence Gould, the wife of the original hotel owner, American millionaire Frank Jay Gold. It has a private lift, terraces, gardens and swimming pool plus media room and beauty salon. Priced at €27.25 million.
- Villa Jardin: At €29 million, it is the most expensive listing on the riviera so far this year. It is a duplex five-bedroom residence with three reception rooms and interlinked guesthouse and separate pool house. Its dining room has antique ivory silk hand-painted wallpaper. The Duchess of Windsor developed an affinity with Antibes while saying at Cannes during the abdication crisis and lived at Le Provencal while her future home, Château de la Croe, was being refurbished. She and Florence Gould were said to be the first and second biggest clients of jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels and met at Paris bijouterie exhibitions.
- Domaine de la Belle Etoile: Five minutes away from Le Provencal are the former tennis courts complex linked to the original hotel which was listed last summer. It is now a €60 million estate made up of three villas, sculpted gardens, outdoor kitchen, helicopter pad, and boules court. The main villa has six bedrooms.
Cote d’Azur classic
A keen cyclist, Mr Caudwell, 73, first saw Hotel Provencal commanding the coastline as he pedalled past more than 40 years ago and even in its derelict state was impressed with its beautiful architecture.
During another cycle ride years later, Mr Caudwell, who by then had sold his Phones4u retail empire for almost £1.5 billion, spotted an agent’s phone number on a sign outside the property and decided it was time to make it his own.
He said that while its cast of illustrious guests adds to its character, it was what he could create that drew him in.
“I can’t do anything about this history. I can do something about the present, so all my focus has been on delivering a world class product that is the very, very best it could ever be,” Mr Caudwell told The National. “I always knew it could be the most desirable building on the whole coast.”
Although he had renovated very old properties before, and had always been fascinated by architecture, he had not set out to be a property developer. When he sold Phones4u he had had “20 years in the firing line, every minute of my life, and it was really stressful. I decided that now came the charitable part and the creative part.”
He became “sucked in” to investing in commercial property during the financial crisis, but found that was not satisfying at all.
“But then that led me once I was into property thinking ‘well I actually want to create something beautiful and wonderful’.”
Design for life
After buying the property, Mr Caudwell had the task of assembling the team of architects, engineers and designers who would realise his vision. He demanded three essentials: beauty, usability and durability. “Otherwise it all falls to pieces,” he said. It became a passion.
An engineer by training with a “logical mind”, Mr Caudwell oversaw the project in remarkable detail. During a tour of the property he was at pains to point out specific child-secure locks on gates to private swimming pools, the need to regulate the irrigation system for the plants to not damage the stone terrace, or the threaded brass imprisoned between glass that acts as a partition in reception.
He demanded the most comfortable massage beds in the treatment rooms, dumbbells with the Provencal insignia in the gym and spent an eternity deciding the exact layout of the spa. He and his team wrestled with planning authorities over structural changes, returning many sections to their original design while introducing new features such as extra balconies in other places. The hotel’s long corridors were stripped out to create dual aspect homes with discreet entrances for staff, floors were thinned and ceiling heights changed. “It was incredibly complex,” he said.
Inordinate hours were spent discussing the taps and why 9ct gold, while appealing, was discarded in favour of a more expensive and durable material created through a special plating process.
“My brain is infinitely focused on detail without ever losing sight of the big picture,” he said.
Beyond the obvious matter of capital, Mr Caudwell brought “judgment” or what he would rather call “a critical eye”. “I couldn't do the interior design myself, but I'm very good at steering people,” he said.
He believes he brings a common sense of knowing whether something works or needs to be changed.
“I always jump in with decisions that I think are important, and I'm always spotting things that my team haven't noticed. It's very frustrating for people that work for me because they can do something amazing and I’m looking to improve it.”
Passion project
It has been a labour of love balanced by a shrewd businessman’s eye. He could have simplified the project to make more profit, but that was not the point. Big spending came with the territory.
“Anything that I do now, I want it to be exceptional. I'm more driven by the creation of beauty than the creation of wealth,” he said.
Everything comes with limits, however.
“If I was going to lose money, I’d rather give it to charities and create beauty by changing people’s lives,” he said. “Of course I want them to be profitable because that's a measure of your success. If you just did something for beauty and made foolish decisions, and they've made no money, that would not be very satisfying.”
His favourite part of the development is penthouse 9b, which he had originally envisaged he would keep for himself before family life took him to Monaco instead. The two-storey apartment valued at €43 million has the best views of the coastline, town and snow-capped mountains inland. It was once used by Hollywood star Elisabeth Taylor and will go on sale later this year as part of the penthouse collection.
“That's the one that sets the tone for the whole building,” he said.
Cutting the strings
After spending 12 years so heavily invested in Hotel Provencal, it would not be unreasonable to think it would be a wrench to let go.
But on top of a Jacobean mansion in Staffordshire in England’s West Midlands where he grew up and “put his heart and soul into”, a £250 million mega-townhouse in London’s Mayfair, the multi-floor penthouse in Monaco, and an “amazing” ski property in Colorado, he recognises he “can’t keep them all”.
“I've got too much property and it's a big responsibility for the upkeep of them, to keep them all looking beautiful. I have to be pragmatic, you know, somebody will buy 9b and have the most spectacular property on the whole coastline with those views looking up at the snow-covered mountains, you're looking at the islands of Cannes or out to see. It’s a unique place to live.”
He will no doubt cycle past in the future and look with pride at the building he has recreated.
And while he is away, he will effectively still be watching over the building.
He has spent £250,000 erecting a statue of himself that stands in the driveway alongside a plaque that celebrates his “commitment to preserving its architectural and cultural significance for future generations” and recognises the “determination, passion and care” he put into returning it to life after decades of decline.
