Pullman Paris Montparnasse Hotel

The developers behind the hotel and the entire complex were Joseph Vaturi and his son Clément, Italians of Egyptian descent, who founded or owned a number of other luxury hotels. The hotel's management rights were initially sold to American chain Sheraton. The inaugural director was Raymond Marcelin, a veteran of several Paris luxury establishments, including the Grand Hôtel, the Prince de Galles and the Meurice.[3]

In 1982, Sheraton sold the hotel's management rights to Swiss hospitality group Nova Park, while the Vaturis sold the complex itself to the same company. However, Nova Park went bankrupt in 1985, taking down with it the leadership its main lender, Banque de participation et de gestion financière, in a financial scandal.[4][5]

In 1986, the complex was acquired in bankruptcy proceedings by Frankoparis, a pension fund managed by representatives of Air France's ground personnel with the backing a Kuwaiti bank, at the same time as the hotel's management rights were acquired by Air France itself via its Méridien chain for FRF 30 million a year.[6][7] In 1998, mall operator Unibail (today Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield) purchased Frankoparis and its assets, including the Vandamme Nord complex.[8] A 1999 renegotiation of the hotel's lease led to the award of an industry-high revenue share by French courts, although the decision was seemingly never enacted.[9][10]

In 2010, Méridien (now a Starwood subsidiary) sold the hotel's management rights to URW, which reallocated them to France's Accor. Terms of the variable lease management contract were not disclosed.[11] Accor chose to operate the hotel under its newly resurrected Pullman brand.[12] It was Pullman's largest European hotel at the time of the name change, and remained so as of its 2022 reopening.[13]

The hotel's historic restaurant was the defunct Montparnasse 25.[14] It was awarded one star by the Michelin Guide in 1991 under Jean-Yves Guého, who was previously a chef for other Méridien hotel restaurants in the U.S. and Hong Kong.[15] Future three-starred chef Christophe Bacquié was also trained at the establishment.[16] In later years, it was headed by Christian Moine, a former second de cuisine at the Meurice. The restaurant suffered from a downsizing in personnel when Méridien was acquired by Starwood in 1998,[17] and eventually closed its doors in July 2010.[18] Other culinary offerings in the hotel's original incarnation were La Ruche, a fast food restaurant, and Le Corail, a lounge bar.[14]

In addition to the offices located above the complex's mall, the hotel tower had its own corporate rental space. In the early stages of the project, it was announced that the lower floors of the hotel would house the European headquarters of Sheraton's parent company International Telephone and Telegraph.[19] However, no later reference to this could be found. In 1974, the project's architect Pierre Dufau moved his agency to the hotel tower, which was its final location until his death in 1985.[20][21][22] Upon Méridien's 1986 acquisition of the hotel, the chain set up its headquarters there until its 1994 sale to Forte Group, when its main offices moved to London, leaving a scaled down team in Paris.[23] Records indicate that Méridien France transferred its location to the Tour Montparnasse in 2010.[24]

The offices of Encyclopaedia Universalis[25] and the Joseph Vaturi-owned Éditions de Montsouris, a subsidiary of which published the French edition of Tintin magazine, were also once located at the address.[26][27] The fr:Press club de France, a network of professional journalists sponsored by Accor, was housed within the hotel between 2010 and 2017, when the latter closed for a lengthy remodel, forcing the group to relocate to Issy-les-Moulineaux.[28]

Following its acquisition by Méridien, the hotel was given a three-year makeover, projected at FRF 100 milion in 1986,[39] but retrospectively pegged at nearly three times more.[40] The lobby was expanded vertically, and a new 2000-seat conference hall was also fitted out.[7][40] The necessary space for the latter was gained from the phasing out of several underground facilities within the complex, including the Patinoire Gaîté-Montparnasse, an ice rink. A 2005 article named it as the largest hotel-integrated conference center in Europe at the time,[41] with some 4,200 m² (45,000 sq ft) of total space across all salons.[40][42]

At the end of August 2017, the hotel closed for another major remodel, concurrent with a restructuring of the entire surrounding complex under the name Les Ateliers Gaîté.[43] Initially planned for May 2020,[44] the reopening was postponed to 27 December 2021, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[45][13] While the adjacent complex's redesign was overseen by Dutch urbanists MVRDV, work on the hotel itself was entrusted to newcomers Cut Architecture, at a cost of €100 million.[46] The number of room stayed relatively stable at 957, including 12 suites and 4 apartments.[2] The entrance's layout was further modified, now extending above street level and taking up part of the first floor. The conference rooms were moved from the underground levels to a three-floor section located above the entrance. The corporate rental space that occupied two of the lower levels was phased out to make room for the new setup.[13][47][48] Former service rooms located on top of the building were converted into a 32nd floor rooftop bar.[47] It was billed at launch as the highest open air bar in the city,[49] although a spate of similar venues has made the claim less definitive.[50] It is the first European Skybar, a branded type of rooftop bar based on an original venue found at Los Angeles' Mondrian.[49]