Tag: 4 star hotel

Hotel Chain Riu Ends Up Acquiring Edificio España

2 June 2017 – El Mundo

The soap opera surrounding the sale of Edificio España in Madrid reached its finale yesterday morning, with the completion of a three-way operation, which saw the Chinese Group Wanda official sell the building’s deeds to the hotel chain Riu. The hotel group reached an agreement with Grupo Baraka to acquire 100% of the property and to subsequently undertake the necessary renovation to convert it into the first hotel in Spain to operate under its Riu Plaza brand.

All of the parties met at the notary’s office yesterday morning in Madrid, and once the purchase of the property from Wanda by Grupo Baraka (which held the initial purchase rights) had been formalised, the latter sold the property to Riu Hotels & Resorts. The consideration paid amounted to €272 million, according to the consultancy firm JLL, which has advised the sale.

“Our strategic plans include opening a Riu Plaza hotel in Spain and this opportunity in Madrid, in an unbeatable location and in an iconic building, completely fulfil all of our requirements,” said Carmen and Luis Riu, CEOs of Riu Hoteles. “The operation had been on the cards for several months before the option opened up of Riu acquiring 100% of the building. After analysing that opportunity in detail, we decided that we didn’t want to waste it”, explained the directors.

Trinitario Casanova, President of Grupo Baraka, will take responsibility for leasing the retail space, measuring 15,000 m2, where several department stores will be opened.

The building work could start today

After hearing of the sale, the Councillor for Sustainable Urban Development at the Town Hall of Madrid, José Manuel Calvo, said that the new owner of Edificio España could start the building work to consolidate Edificio España right away. The licence to undertake the structural work was granted on 31 March and its terms are “not affected” by the identity of the building’s owner.

The processing of the permit to open a hotel in the skyscraper will take a bit longer. Sources at the Palacio de Cibeles (the Town Hall) predict that the green light will be given for the construction of the establishment in “the autumn”, given that the municipal technicians and Baraka’s architects have been working together on this project for several months now.

In terms of the retail surface area, which will be housed on the lower floors of the property, in Plaza de España, the presentation of an affidavit is all that is required to start the refurbishment work.

The hotel

The future Hotel Riu Plaza will occupy 24 of the 27 floors in Edificio España, whilst the remainder will be used as retail space. The establishment will have approximately 650 rooms and will be a 4-star property.

The hotel will also have a space measuring more than 1,800 m2 for events, which will include an open plan room measuring 1,500 m2, with 6 m high ceilings, which will become a unique space in the centre of Madrid.

The establishment will also have two restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, where there will also be a Sky Bar and an additional space for events, spanning more than 900 m2.

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. Ciria, Marta Belver and Roberto Bécares)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotel Chain Attica21 Acquires Its First Hotel In Madrid

11 January 2017 – Inmodiario

The hotel chain Attica21 has acquired its first property in Madrid, the Gran Hotel Las Rozas. Attica21 Hotels, which is owned by the Inveravante Corporation and which already owns hotels in Galicia and Barcelona, has completed the integration and refurbishment of this new hotel to ensure that it complies with the group’s standards. It will start to operate the property, now known as the Gran Hotel Attica21 Las Rozas, under the Attica21 brand from the beginning of 2017. The hotel is an urban establishment, which will generate 30 direct jobs.

Located in the heart of the Las Rozas Business Centre, next to the A-6 (A Coruña) motorway and just a few minutes from the centre of Madrid, the property is a modern, elegant and functional 4-star hotel with 90 double rooms, including 3 Junior Suites and 3 rooms for disabled guests.

Aimed at both business and leisure clients, the hotel has several restaurants, as well as facilities for holding events and company meetings. To this end, it has a cafeteria with a terrace, a hall for banquets and events with capacity for 200 people (Mirador Las Rozas) with an extensive outdoor space, gardens, terraces, facilities for celebrating civil weddings and an outdoor space for drinks receptions; as well as 570m2 of meeting rooms. Moreover, it has a Fitness Center, a gym, sauna and changing rooms with hydro-massage showers and private parking.

Attica21 Hotels

The chain Attic21Hotels, created in 2008, owns six 3- and 4-star hotels located in Galicia and Cataluña: Attica21 Coruña, Attica21 Barcelona Mar, Spa Attica21 Villalba, Aparthotel Vallès (Sabadell), Apartamentos Portazgo and As Galeras Hotel Apartamentos. Attica21’s hotels are characterised by their modern feel and by the broad range of services that they offer their clients; they also represent very good value for money. The chain is also renowned for its commitment to high quality catering.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Sells €700M In Debt & Foreclosed Hotels To Apollo

29 December 2016 – El Confidencial

CaixaBank is going to close 2016 with a healthier balance sheet, thanks to the latest divestment operation that it is about to sign. According to financial sources, the banking institution led by Gonzalo Gortázar (pictured above), has reached an agreement with Apollo Global Management to sell €700 million in foreclosed assets linked to the hotel sector. The US fund is hereby going to acquire 20 four- and five-star holiday establishments that the bank has been holding in its portfolio following non-payments by customers.

The transaction, which has been dubbed Project Sun, is just awaiting the finishing touches from CaixaBank and Apollo, the opportunistic fund that purchased 84% of Banco Santander’s real estate company – Altamira – for €664 million and all of Evo Banco, which previously belonged to the former Novacaixagalicia for €80 million, amongst other things. Nevertheless, the agreement between the bank headquartered in Barcelona and the NYC-based firm is limited to two thirds of the portfolio that was initially put up for sale.

The Spanish financial institution, which has been advised by Alantra, had valued Project Sun at around €1,000 million, on the basis that it contained, on the one hand, unpaid loads secured by 112 hotels; and, on the other hand, 32 establishments that the bank had foreclosed due to non-payment. According to the internal documentation from the sales notebook, in total, 11,000 rooms were put up for sale, the largest hotel portfolio of the year. But at the last minute, the entity has decided to get rid of debt amounting to only around €350 million and 20 hotels worth a similar figure, which means that 12 properties have been left out of the agreement with Apollo Global Management.

The reason is that the offers that it received for these other holiday establishments were well below their respective book values, and so they have chosen to not sell them now so as to sell them for a bad price. Most of the hotels and loans are located in Andalucía (37), Cataluña (22) and the Canary Islands (19). Besides Apollo, which has been advised by Arcano and by Gustavo Gabardo, former Director General of NH Hoteles, CaixaBank had also received interest for this portfolio from other so-called vulture funds, such as Starwood, Cerberus, Oaktree and Bank of America, which had already acquired assets from Bankia, Santander, Sareb and Sabadell.

With this transaction, CaixaBank is going to close the year with €2,400 million less in terms of overdue debt, having already completed the sale of other non-performing loan portfolios. On 30 November, it got rid of the portfolio known as “Far”, which it sold for €700 million to Lindorff and D. E. Shaw. In July, it did the same with another package of unpaid credits for €900 million (Project Carlit), which it sold to Goldman Sachs and D. E. Shaw. (…).

This is the eleventh operation of its kind that CaixaBank has completed since it started to try to remove toxic loans from its balance sheet. (…). Over the last two years, it has managed to get rid of non-performing loans amounting to almost €6,000 million, a strategy that has allowed it to reduce its default rate from almost 12% at the height of the financial crisis to just 8.7%.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Larrain & Loiola Gestión Buy Illunbe Leisure Complex For €17.1M

22 November 2016 – Noticias de Gipuzkoa

The exiting Illunbe leisure complex (in Donostia) will soon be demolished and a new shopping centre, called El Mirador de Illunbe, will be constructed in its place. The aim of the property developers Larrain SL (which forms part of the Moyua Group) and Loiola Gestión Inmobiliaria (owned by Altuna y Uria), to whom the Town Hall of Donostia has awarded the sale of the leisure complex for €17.1 million, is to create a modern “first rate” shopping centre, in a prime location in the city, with views overlooking the sea. To achieve this, the developers will invest a total of €80 million over the next two years (including the aforementioned purchase price of €17.1 million and another €5.5 million to improve access to the site, as required by the Town Hall), in addition to €30 million that the future tenants may invest. The new Illunbe centre is expected to open its doors in time for Christmas 2018.

Although the sale still needs to be formalised (the municipal Government plans to approve and sign the deal soon), the JV (UTE or Unión Temporal de Empresas) formed by Larrain and Loiola Gestión Inmobiliaria was the only group to present an offer and the municipal services team has given their bid the green light. For this reason, the developers have spent the last few weeks marketing the property and making contact with potential tenants; and they admit that the proposal has received significant interest.

The new retail and leisure space will comprise three buildings. Two will be completely new and will be located to the south of the bullring: one will house a 3,000 m2 supermarket and the other will be home to a four-star hotel, with around 75 rooms. The third building will be the star attraction and will be constructed on the land that currently houses the existing property, which will be completely demolished (only the two underground parking floors will be maintained, and another similar floor will be added). Above ground, there will be four new floors and 30,000 m2 of space dedicated to retail and leisure, with a glass façade overlooking Donostia and the sea. “Instead of turning its back on the city, the new centre will look it in the eye”, said Juan Merino from Idea Real Estate, the company that is marketing the new premises at Illunbe on behalf of the property developers Larrain and Loiola Gestión Inmobiliaria. (…).

Original story: Noticias de Gipuzkoa (by Arantzazu Zabaleta)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Antonio Calero Acquires Paseo Neptuno, 72 In Valencia

4 November 2016 – Real Estate Press

Through one of his companies, the businessman Antonio Calero has acquired the building located on Paseo de Neptuno, number 72, owned until now by Ernesto Martínez Colomer.

Calero is the main shareholder of the Marina Beach Club complex in Valencia, whose name will also be used on this occasion.

With a total investment of €14 million, to cover the cost of buying the building and converting it into a hotel, Calero, plans to turn the property into a hotel and restaurant.

The three-storey building has a similar structure to those of other hotel complexes in the surrounding area, which has been established by the municipal legislation that applies to the area, and especially to these types of buildings that overlook the Paseo Marítimo and the beach.

The municipal constraints also affect the design of the property, in such a way that the final façade still needs to be agreed in conjunction with the Town Hall of Valencia. In any case, the project has been assigned to the architect José Martí from the ERRE studio, a personal friend of the businessman, who is looking for a totally renewed and different concept at the club, with the fundamental premise that the complex be “very representative of the Valencian character”.

Each one of the hotel’s 50 rooms will be fashioned by a local designer, who will source supplies from major companies in the furniture and furnishings sector, including Andreu World, Viccarbe and Porcelanosa, according to Calero. “The idea is that our clients will be able to experience up to 50 different nights”, said the owner.

Calero also highlighted the “exclusive” character of this new project. The price per room will reflect the rates charged in the area for a 5-star hotel. Although the figures have not been determined yet, competitors in the area charge between €150 and €900 per night.

Those figures are based on low season rates at the nearby Hotel Balnerio Las Arenas, located just a few metres away. At Hotel Neptuno, which is also nearby, but which is a 4-star property, prices range between €100 and €400 per night.

In any case, to obtain the highest distinction in terms of hotel category, the owner will have to make a series of structural changes to the property, which still need to be defined.

The purchase has just been completed, which means that the project is in its very early stages. The application for the building licence and permits will now be submitted and the construction work is expected to take at least 15 months, which means that it is unlikely that the hotel will open for another two years. In other words, the new hotel should be ready for summer 2018.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Leonardo Hotels Buys Its Third Establishment In Madrid

29 September 2016 – Hosteltur

Leonardo Hotels is continuing its expansion in the Spanish capital with the acquisition of its third hotel, the Gran Atlanta Madrid, which will be incorporated into its portfolio from 30 September. According to Hosteltur, Gran Atlanta will join two other properties that the largest group in Israel bought in July. The Gran Atlanta Hotel is a four-star property and has 180 rooms, as well as five meeting rooms, with capacity for up to 100 people, and a restaurant.

A determining factor in the acquisition of the hotel has been its prime location, right in the heart of the financial and business district of the city. It is close to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and is well-connected by public transport, both in terms of local trains (Cercanías) and the Metro, which allow guests to travel quickly from Nuevos Ministerios to the centre or to the airport in just 15 minutes.

The Hotel Gran Atlanta Madrid will retain its current name until the renovation work has been completed. The refurbishment is due to take place between April and the autumn of 2017, when the property will adopt the Leonardo Hotels brand name. The international law firm Hogan Lovells has provided legal advice once again in an operation that has been advised by Planet Hotels & Resorts.

According to the Director General of Leonardo Hotels for Europe, Daniel Roger, “the decision to acquire another property in Madrid was not hard when we found the Hotel Gran Atlanta. Our success is based on our strategy of owning several hotels in Europe’s major cities and on the synergies that that approach generates. Naturally, the building’s potential and its excellent location have also been decisive factors.

The firm now has five hotels in the Spanish market, two in Barcelona (Leonardo Hotels made its debut in Barcelona with the Boutique Hotel Sagrada Familia) and three in Madrid. Roger added, “this represents a boost, in a short period of time, which makes our offer even more attractive and allows us to develop and strengthen our position in Spain ever further. We will continue our growth soon with more acquisitions here (in Spain) as well as in other countries in Europe”.

Leonardo Hotels is the European division of the Fattal Hotels Group, founded by David Fattal in Israel. It has operated in the European market since 2007 and owns more than 65 establishments in the superior 3-star and superior 4-star categories in more than 35 cities aross the continent, in countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the UK, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands. In total, its properties have more than 10,000 rooms and 20,500 sqm of space for meetings and conferences.

Original story: Hosteltur

Translation: Carmel Drake

HI Partners Buys Hotel In Tenerife From The Polanco Family

26 July 2016 – Expansión

The founding family of Prisa will use the funds (received from the sale) to reduce its debt with the banks and repay a loan from Banco Santander.

HI Partners is pushing ahead in its offsensive to become one of the largest owners of hotel assets in Spain. The subsidiary of Banco Sabadell has acquired the Hotel Jardín Tropical, located in Costa de Adeje, in the south of Tenerife, from the Polanco family, founder of Prisa.

This is a complex operation that, on the one hand, will allow the repayment of a €20 million loan that the hotel holds with Banco Santander. In parallel, the Polanco family will reduce the bank debt that it holds with several financial institutions, according to sources close to the transaction. This is HI Partners’ second acquisition in the Canary Islands, after it purchased Hotel IFA Catarina in Gran Canaria a few days ago, from the Lopeson group.

Through the investor holding company Timón, the Polanco family controls several hotels, which it operates through My Way. This company will continue to manage Hotel Jardín Tropical, which has 419 rooms and has a 4-star rating. The hotel, constructed around thirty years ago and located on the beach front, was designed by the architect Melvin Villarroel, known for integrating architecture with nature. Thus, the hotel has 12,000 sqm of sub-tropical vegetation and a saltwater swimming pool.

The aim of HI Partners is to renew all of the rooms to modernise the tourist complex, located in Spain’s fourth most important destination by RevPar, the indicator used to measure the profitability of hotel assets. The company led by Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas now has 26 hotels in its portfolio and manages €850 million of Banco Sabadell’s hotel debt.

Original story: Expansión (by S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Salazar Family Sells Hotel Velázquez For €63M

26 July 2016 – El Confidencial

Beset by debt, the Salazar family, the former owner of SOS-Cuétara, has spent the last three years trying to get rid of its vast hotel and real estate empire, an emporium whose last great jewel was the Gran Hotel Velázquez in Madrid, a property for which it has just received an irresistible offer.

Corporacion Hispano Hotelera, the company owned by the Salazar-Bello family, has reached an agreement with the Didra Group, famous for having constructed the luxurious residential areas of Montepríncipe and El Encinar, to sell the property for €63 million, according to several sources close to the deal.

The Ardid Villoslada family, which is behind Didra, has been linked to the property development business for decades and was made famous due to the marriage of one of its members, Rafael, to Mariola Martínez Borduí, the granddaughter of the dictator Francisco Franco. One of their sons, Jaime Ardid Martínez Bordiú has closed this agreement, with a view to opening a luxury 5-star hotel.

On 23 August 2016, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will present this sale for approval by the General Shareholders’ Meeting, with the aim of wrapping up the final sale in January, once the Salazar family has also received the blessing from its creditor banks, led by Banco Popular.

With its privileged location, in the heart of the neighbourhood of Salamanca, just a stone’s throw from the Retiro Park and the capital’s golden mile, the Gran Hotel Velázquez is a sought-after establishment. Nevertheless, it needs to be completely refurbished, according to experts in the sector.

In fact, Didra is expected to invest between €15 million and €20 million refurbishing the property. It plans to retain the image of a more bourgeois Madrid that characterises it, and always under the maxim of reserving the right to manage it, meaning that the Ardid family’s plans do not include opening a large hotel chain.

Didra maintains a close relationship with brands such as AC and NH, with which it operates some of the properties in its hotel group Nevertheless, the plans that the Ardid family have in mind for the Gran Hotel Velázquez more closely resemble the concept of the Hotel Palacio de Villapanés in Sevilla, a 5-star property located in the neighbourhood of Santa Cruz, in a former seventeenth century palace, which Didra manages itself.

With this sale, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will be reduced to an empty shell, after selling off the majority of its hotels in just over two years. The house of cards first started to topple in the Spring of 2014, when it had to close down Hotel Ada Palace, located on Gran Vía in Madrid, after it was evicted by the owner of the property, Real Gran Peña, which denounced the company for not paying the rent.

A year later, Hotusa purchased the Hotel María Elena, located 50m from Puerta del Sol, and renamed it the Eurostars Casa de la Lírica; meanwhile, Platinum Estates acquired the Hotel Asturias, in Plaza de Canalejas for €21.5 million. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Buys Hotel Oasis Resort In Lanzarote For €28M

22 July 2016 – Expansión

The Socimi Hispania, through its subsidiary Bay Hotels & Leisure, has acquired 100% of the company Inversiones Inmobiliarias Oasis Resort, owner of the Hotel Oasis Resort located in Costa Teguise (Lanzarote), from CaixaBank and Metrópolis for €28 million.

After this operation, the Barceló Group will operate the hotel under a lease contract, which forms part of the framework agreement that governs all of the hotels operated by the group.

The 4-star property has 372 rooms and is located right on the beachfront, opposite Hotel Barceló Lanzarote.

As part of its investment strategy, the group is considering integrating this asset with Hotel Barceló Lanzarote, with the aim of creating a mega resort with almost 800 rooms on the beachfront.

Although the hotel was refurbished recently, an investment of €4 million is planned to bring it up to Barceló’s standards.

Following this acquisition, Hispania now owns 35 hotels, primarily in the vacation segment, and so has more than 10,400 rooms, making it the largest (non-operator) hotel owner in Spain.

According to Hispania’s CEO, Concha Osácar, the Canary Islands is a key market for the company, given its stable occupancy rates throughout the year and its high degree of exposure to European tourists.

On 18 July, Hispania acquired 100% of the shares in the company Later Deruser, owner of the Hotel Paradise Portinatx in Ibiza (Balearic Islands) for €11 million, which will also be operated by Barceló.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania To Purchase 4 Dunas Hotels In Canary Islands For €75M

12 April 2016 – Expansión

The Socimi in which George Soros holds a stake has taken over the mortgage debt of the company that owns the hotels, which it has purchased from several financial institutions at a discount.

Hispania will invest €75 million on the purchase of four hotels on the island of Gran Canaria from the company Dunas Hotels & Resort, in order to strengthen the portfolio of assets of this type that it already owns in the Canary Islands, according to a statement made by the company. (…)

Dunas Hotels & Resort has filed for bankruptcy and so Hispania must wait until the creditors of the company have approved the agreement to exit the bankruptcy process and the company can be capitalised.

With this operation, Hispania will acquire four 4-star and 3-star hotels, containing 1,183 rooms in total. The Socimi will subsequently make an investment of €9 million to reposition the hotels through improvements.

The current partners of Dunas Hotels & Resorts will continue to operate the hotels through a variable lease contract for an initial term of ten years.

According to Hispania, the four hotels recorded an “exceptional” year in 2015, which is expected to continue in 2016.

With this investment, the Socimi will complement and reinforce the portfolio of holiday assets that it owns in the Canary Islands and will strengthen its presence on the island of Gran Canaria, where it already owns the 484-room Hotel Barceló Margaritas.

House purchases in Madrid

Meanwhile, Hispania has acquired a complex of 91 homes in Madrid, located in the north east of the capital, for €16 million.

Specifically, the asset comprises ninety-one 1-bed and 2-bed homes, which have a combined surface area of 6,296 m2 and 146 parking spaces.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake