The mysterious buyer of the Kyiv’s central Dnipro Hotel revealed himself on social media on July 23.
It turned out to be Alexander Kokhanovskyy, founder and former CEO of NaVi, a superstar esports team from Ukraine. He bought the hotel from the state on July 15 for $41 million and now is going to turn it into an esports arena where computer geeks will clash playing video games for a living.
“The victory in the tender for the Dnipro Hotel wasn’t won by Russian oligarchs but (by) Ukrainian tech guys,” Kokhanovskyy wrote on Facebook.
Gaming, not gambling
The hotel will continue to offer classic services such as restaurants, bars, spa areas, and fitness centers. But it will also feature everything a professional esports gamer needs: training areas, rooms for players and esports stage to hold competitions. It will also have ”the world’s best players’ lounge,” Kokhanovskyy said.
Kokhanovskyy estimates that the renovation will take two years and $20 million, he told Ukrainian media AIN.ua on July 23.
The 56-year-old Soviet-era hotel, a 13,000-square-meter building located just a short walk from the Dnipro River, features 186 rooms, restaurants, bars, a spa center and several conference rooms.
Kokhanovksyy dismissed rumors that the hotel would be used for gambling. He’s not interested in casinos or bookmaking even though gambling was legalized in Ukraine on July 14, a day before the auction, and that the hotel would qualify to have a gambling area.
For him, buying the hotel was the first step he could take to develop the esport industry in Ukraine and help improve its legislation by drawing extra attention from the media and public.
In Ukraine alone, two million people follow esports. Kokhanovksyy’s legendary esports team NaVi — short for Natus Vincere in Latin that means “Born to Win”— is one of the most successful teams on the planet.
Experts predict the esport industry could become the world’s number one sport over the next 10 years, putting even soccer out of play. According to a report released by global analytics company Newzoo on April 15, the industry will top over $1 billion in revenues in 2020, for the second year in a row, potentially reaching $1.5 billion in 2023.
Secrecy
The Dnipro Hotel was among the first five state-owned objects put up for privatization by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Kokhanovskyy, alongside with Ukrainian partners, bought the hotel through an unknown company called Smartland, legally registered at a rundown private house just outside Kyiv in the town of Brovary.
At first, an online search did not reveal any additional information about the company, their owners or their activities, and the phone number was fake.
Kokhanoskyy told AIN.ua that the pool of investors has no connection with any “Russian traces” and Smartland is just one of his partners.
