Dubai Investor To Open 3* Hotel In Centre Of Barcelona

16 June 2015 – Expansión

The businessman from Dubai has dodged the Ciutat Vella’s hotel moratorium by purchasing his licence from an establishment that has closed.

Since 2009, the historic centre of Barcelona, known as Ciutat Vella, has been subject to a hotel moratorium, which limits the construction of properties of this kind.

However, the Arab investor Haytham Alhaj Ali will open a three star hotel at number 8, on la Rambla del Raval, in the centre of Ciutat Vella.

He has engaged S3 Arquitectura to design the hotel project and he has signed an agreement with Acta Hotels to manage the future property, which could open in May next year.

This is Mr Alhaj Ali’s first project in Spain; he has invested in Barcelona through an equity company. The consideration paid for the purchase of the land and hotel licence is unknown but the cost of the construction work is expected to amount to around €3 million.

The hotel, with 27 rooms, stands on a plot of land in la Ramba del Raval where a former “squatters” drop-in centre, known as the ‘House of the Rebel People’, was located.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake