The French Riviera needs little introduction. It’s long been beloved as a vacation destination, with the jet-set flocking to the Cannes film festival in May, partying at the beach clubs of St Tropez and staying in storied resorts like Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.

But on some parts of the coast, the glamour has faded.

Take the striking white art deco Hôtel Provençal on the western end of Cap d’Antibes, built for American railway heir Frank Jay Gould, which opened its doors in 1927. It had drawn names like Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso as guests before closing for good in 1977 and sitting vacant ever since.

Billionaire British mobile phone mogul John Caudwell, a frequent visitor to the area, says he’d often pass the empty building on his cycle route and admire it.

“I had seen the Hôtel Provençal be derelict for decades, and I used to think that it’s a magnificent property,” says Caudwell, speaking exclusively to Bloomberg. “It dominates the entrance to Cap D’Antibes, and I could just see that the building could be really beautiful.”

A little more than a decade ago, Caudwell decided to ring a number on the board outside the hotel and make an offer; he finalised the purchase in 2014.

Caudwell says he spent about GBP300 million ($522 million) to buy the building and renovate it. “I didn’t want to make it a hotel again. I wasn’t a hotelier,” he explains. “But I knew I could make beautiful residences.”

So he turned the 290-room hotel into a 41-unit luxury residence, renamed Le Provençal, with a furnished four-bedroom apartment listed for EUR9.75 million ($14 million) and a penthouse for sale for EUR40 million.

Turning an art deco hotel into luxury apartments took the better part of a decade, and the building’s doors will reopen in July for the first residents to move in.

Second life

The common areas of the building feature an Ottoman-style domed gold-leaf ceiling, an art deco-inspired cinema for residents and a 2,155 sq ft health spa with a sauna, vitality pool and cold plunge. Outside are six acres of landscaped gardens with a 98ft long showpiece swimming pool.

Caudwell enlisted Richard Martinet of the Parisian architecture and design studio Affine Design, known for his work on the Hôtel de Crillon, to work on the renovation.

“It’s always a bit crass to say no expenses were spared, because that could indicate that you’re just being blingy for the sake of it, but we have certainly not cut any costs at all,” says Caudwell. “If something was needed for the quality of the building, we have invested in that. The goal is to make it the best on the coastline.”

He adds that the renovation took time because he wanted everything to be perfect, and that the project was a labour of love for him.

There will still be a hotel connection in Le Provençal’s second life, however. A partnership agreement with the neighbouring Hôtel Belles Rives will give Le Provençal residents access to its amenities, including concierge service, the private beach club and the Michelin-starred restaurant La Passagère.

Caudwell says these kinds of services and perks are what the buyers of ultra-luxurious residences want now. “It’s a real chic hotel with its own beach and jetty,” he says. “And it’s just across the road, so the partnership is a perfect fit for us.” Rooms at Hôtel Belles Rives start at about EUR600 a night in June.

Around 25% of the apartments in the building have sold so far, Caudwell says. Experts say there’s not much like it in the area, which is dominated by villas and single-family homes in the luxury space.

Alex Balkin, executive director of Savills French Riviera and French Alps, says demand for new buildings is “huge, because there is hardly anything on the market”. He adds that clients will certainly be drawn to a renovated historic Art Deco building with all new interiors.

Market stirring

As to who is buying, Caudwell says it’s been a mix of Brits and Europeans, though he has also seen strong interest coming from the US.

That makes sense, according to Balkin, who says a lot of the demand at the top end on the French Riviera is coming from Americans, who’ve had a love affair with the region for a long time. Hôtel Provençal was originally built for an American millionaire, after all.

Balkin adds that demand at the top end has increased significantly since President Donald Trump returned to office. “There’s always been a real love story between Americans and the South of France,” says Balkin. “But we’ve seen much more demand this year than last year or the year before. We’ve seen a real pickup since the election.”

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Other brokers have noticed the same trend. “The Côte d’Azur is really coming back, especially in the high end, because we have seen many more American buyers flooding back into the market,” says Alexander Kraft, chairman and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty France – Monaco. “There’s a lot of movement,” he adds, especially with properties priced between US$10 million ($12.8 million) and US$50 million.

Americans have really come back to the market in force, Kraft says, and not just from one end of the political spectrum. “They have been of either political persuasion, either trying to get away from Trump or Trump supporters who are optimistic about the future and want to place their money into real estate.”

“The South of France is the number one destination worldwide for second homes,” he adds, “and seen as a safe place for wealth.”

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