Weekly Hotel Industry News Roundup from Europe, Middle East and Africa
Buy Jove, Indeed
Manuel Jove Capellán has returned to Fadesa, the real estate company of which he was once the chairman, to buy off it six hotels in Spain and assorted plots of land in the same country for a grand total of €118.4 million. The six properties, which cost companies associated with Capellán a combined total of approximately €31.8 million, are the Hotel Portazgo, As Galeras, the Hotel Balneario de Villalba, the Husa Vallés, the Hotel Front Marítim and a stake of 83.5% in the Barceló Coruña through the purchase of the owning company Hotel Matogrande.
H10 Hotels Comes Into Land In Berlin
H10 Hotels is set to start work this autumn on what will be its first hotel in Germany. The Spanish company has paid an undisclosed sum for a 3,400 m˛ plot of land near Kurfürstendamm, one of the main shopping streets in the German capital Berlin. H10 Hotels expects to open the property, which is to have around 175 rooms, in the first half of 2009. The 2008/09 season promises to be one long party for the company, as it should also be celebrating the opening of its first hotel in the UK - a four-star property of some 200 rooms near Waterloo railway station in London - and the arrival of its first hotel in Italy, the H10 Roma Città, in Rome, is a four-star hotel with 182 rooms.
Nothing Slow About Adagio City Aparthotel
Accor and Pierre & Vacances announced in February that they had formed a 50:50 joint venture that would be developing aparthotels across Europe. The brand that will adorn each property - and 16 such properties (a total of 2,300 apartments) are already in existence in France and Italy - has now been revealed as Adagio City Aparthotel. The properties wearing this brand will be in either the three-star or the four-star category and will have between 80 and 140 apartments each. The partners want to have at least 50 properties in Europe by 2012.
Dubai World To Invest In Rwanda
After a recent spot of island-hopping - Comoros, Zanzibar - Dubai World has landed in mainland Africa and struck a course for the central republic of Rwanda. The holding company from the emirate of Dubai is to invest a total of some US$230 million in eight tourism projects, each to be developed and managed by Istithmar Real Estate, Dubai World's investment arm, under a memorandum of understanding signed with the Rwandan government. The projects include the construction of a luxury 150-room hotel, town houses and villas at the 18-hole golf course (which will be redeveloped) in the country's capital Kigali, and the redevelopment of the 60-room Akagera Game Lodge, which stands within Akagera National Park in the northeast of Rwanda.
Lonrho Is Congo Ready
Luano Grand is the name of a mixed-use development that is to be built (work is scheduled to begin next year) in Lubumbashi, a city in the far south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lonrho Hotels, a division of the Lonrho conglomerate, will take the lease on and manage a five-star hotel, offering 256 rooms and 50 long-stay apartments, that will adjoin a shopping centre on the development. Lonrho, which invests widely in Africa, has a stake in Hotel Cardoso, a 131-room property in the Mozambiquan capital Maputo.
Conrad Writes Home From The Algarve
What is it that Ireland has two of, Belgium and Turkey only one, and Portugal, until this week at least, none at all? There may be several possible answers, but the only one that is printable here is - a hotel with the Conrad brand. Moreover, the property that is to open in 2010 on a mixed-use development near Quinta do Lago, on the Algarve, will be Conrad Hotels & Resorts' first resort hotel in Europe. The company signed the management agreement on the luxury property, which will have around 158 rooms, with Portuguese conglomerate Grupo Imocom, the owner of the Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa, which opened on the Algarve in July.
The Swiss To Germany, The Germans To Austria
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has opened, on schedule, a second hotel at the airport serving the city of Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. The four-star Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Airport, which has 326 rooms, took only 19 months to construct. Its arrival meant that the company's existing 229-room hotel was obliged to change its name to the Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Messe, in homage no doubt to the new Landesmesse exhibition centre, near to which both hotels stand. Meanwhile, German operator Lindner Hotels & Resorts has flown across the border to open what is its first hotel in Austria: the 219-room, four-star Lindner Hotel Am Belvedere in the capital Vienna.
Rezidor's Romanian Radisson Resort
Rezidor Hotel Group will be coming down the mountain in the final quarter of 2009 having opened its first resort in Romania. The 186-room Radisson Resort Poiana Brasov will be some 1,000 metres above sea level in Poiana Brasov, a ski resort near the central city of Brasov. Rezidor will be a face among the tourists earlier that year in the Austrian town of Klosterneuburg, which lies just to the north of Vienna. The company will be there to open its third Park Inn hotel in Austria: the 130-room Park Inn Klosterneuburg.
EBRD Helps Fund Jadranka's Refurbishment Plans
EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) is to contribute a maximum of €24.4 million to the total of €75.3 million needed to fund the refurbishment of the mix of ten hotels and villas operated by Jadranka Hotels on the Adriatic island of Lošinj, off the shores of Croatia. The aim of the work is to raise the properties to an international three-star or four-star standard.
Ritz-Carlton Powers Into Ireland
October came to the Republic of Ireland and brought with it a first property in the country for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The 200-room Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, occupies four hectares of the Powerscourt Estate and was developed by Ritz-Carlton in partnership with Irish property company Treasury Holdings. The resort, which will incorporate chef Gordon Ramsay's first restaurant in Ireland, is Ritz-Carlton's ninth property in Europe.
Easy Landing At Heathrow
What's that low-flying orange streak in the sky over Heathrow? Is it a bird? Unlikely. Is it a plane? Suppose it might be an easyJet. No, it's a hotel - the latest in the easyHotel range. Eclipse Hotels, which earlier this year took the franchise on an easyHotel in Luton, will have two hotels to open in 2008, as it is the franchisee of the easyHotel London Heathrow too. EasyHotel had just jetted in from the Hungarian capital Budapest where it had opened the 59-room easyHotel Budapest Oktogon, the company will be in the Swiss city of Zürich in November to open a 33-room property.
Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
