It was one of the most luxurious hotels in the capital of Bulgaria.

[1] The hotel was built as the Vitosha New Otani by the Japanese New Otani Hotels chain[2] between 1974 and 1979 to the design of leading Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934–2007) in the upper-class neighbourhood Lozenets.

In his design, Kurokawa implemented architectural details inspired by the Bulgarian National Revival style of Koprivshtitsa and Plovdiv.

The 21-storey hotel was built by Bulgarian company Tehnoeksportstroy and the Japanese Mitsubishi.

[2] Its Japanese garden was a large-scale copy of the one at the original Hotel New Otani Tokyo and one of its main features is a Japanese-style garden with a typical house and lake.