Jul. 25--Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc., which has been been running the Copley Plaza Boston hotel since 1996, said yesterday it had purchased a 50 percent stake from the storied landmark's owner. 

The $23 million transaction with Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talai bin Abdulaziz Alsaud will allow North America's largest hotel chain to manage the property for the next half century. It also gives Alwaleed, whose fortune is valued at $20 billion, capital for future hotel purchases. 
 

Fairmont officials said yesterday guests would see no obvious changes as a result of the transaction. Emma Thompson, director of investor relations for the company, and Dennis Clark, the Fairmont Copley's general manager, did say the hotel would undergo a major upgrade in the next 12 to 18 months, including substantial guest room renovations.  How much the company plans to spend on the changes has not been decided. "What's important is that this hotel be a

Constructed on the original site of The Museum of Fine Arts, The Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenberghm, who also designed The Plaza in New York. The sister hotels share the same double 'P' insignia seen throughout both properties.

The Fairmont Copley Plaza, located in the Back Bay, opened its doors in 1912 and over the years has been home to foreign and domestic dignitaries, including every US president since William Howard Taft. 

Designed by Henry Janeway Hardenberghm, who also designed New York's Plaza Hotel, the Copley has also been featured in several motion pictures, including "The Firm." 

Alwaleed, a nephew of King Fahd and a 16.5 percent owner of Fairmont's hotel management unit, bought the Copley Plaza in 1996 with Olympus Real Estate Corp., an affiliate of buyout firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Inc. In 1999, he bought the Olympus shares to become sole owner. 

The prince has shares in some of the world's top luxury hotels. He has a 25 percent stake in Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotels Inc. and owns Four Seasons managed George V in Paris, the 1928 art deco hotel near the Champs-Elysees. He also owns 50 percent of The Plaza in New York. 

-- Information from Bloomberg News was used in this report. 

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