The former Alabardia clinic turns into hotel

rom the lake, the construction site does not go unnoticed: from the «ashes» of the former clinic Alabardia of Piazzogna, in Gambarogno, a new hotel complex is being built that will provide about fifty rooms. The construction site, as we were able to see this week in a quick inspection, is already well underway, even if the pandemic and some building variants have somewhat slowed it down. But, as Sergio Tami, director of construction for IFEC Ingegneria SA of Rivera, explained to us, by the end of the year the workers should dismantle the scaffolding and clear the site, leaving the owners of the structure the task of furnishing and decorating the new hotel in order to welcome the first guests on the left bank of the Verbano next spring. «We hope to complete simultaneously by December the restructuring of the former clinic in the hotel, which will have about thirty rooms with reception and breakfast room, as well as the realization of the new wing with another 26 rooms divided into two floors plus the basement garage that will serve the whole hotel»

In the interim, we were joined on site by one of the two promoters of the « makeover « operation of the Alabardia, Martin Schneider-Lenné. Together with his business partner, German entrepreneur Christian Joachim Zurbrüggen, Schneider-Lenné has laid on the table the 20 million francs needed first to purchase the former clinic and then to design and build the hotel facility. « We used to come here on vacation with my family and fell in love with Ticino. A few years ago we moved to Lake Maggiore and when together with my business partner we had the opportunity to buy the former clinic to design and build a hotel we did not think twice. Our idea is to create a modern hotel and offer a good level of hospitality, but at a lower cost than, for example, in Ascona or Locarno. However, from our hotel, we will offer the opportunity to our guests to move, by lake and by taxi-boats, to the other shore or on guided excursions in the valleys», he explains. For this boat-taxi service, he intends to build a new pier on the lakeshore that will be available to the public.

The new hotel complex, says Martin Schneider-Lenné, will be comfortable, with high construction and technological standards but without «frills» and will aim at a family type clientele. « There will be no restaurant, only breakfast in the dining room we are setting up on the ground floor of the former clinic. The rooms in the new wing will be modular, so as to accommodate one or two people, but also families or groups. The garage will also have a technical room for cyclists and bikers.Those who will stay in our hotel, in short, will have to think only about resting, enjoying the view and planning some excursion or dinner in a grotto of the region or a festival evening in Piazza Grande or at the JazzFestival of Ascona».

The operators of the sector also welcome the creation of the hotel in Piazzogna. Remo Clerici, for example, gambarognese and vice president of the Lake Maggiore and Valleys Tourism Organization: «This is a major step forward for an area that up to now has been linked mainly to secondary residences. Some hotels are there, but not of such important dimensions». Satisfaction also expressed by Massimo Perucchi, president of HotellerieSuisse Sopraceneri. «Finally - he declares to the Corriere - a delay will be recuperated also in the Gambarogno, where up to now there were no leading hotel structures able to offer around fifty rooms».