Platinum Puts Hotel Asturias in Madrid Up for Sale

1 March 2019 – Eje Prime

The Hong Kong-based investment group Platinum is looking for a buyer for the Hotel Asturias in Madrid, which it purchased in 2014 and which is going to be home to the W chain’s first hotel in the Spanish capital.

Platinum acquired the hotel from the Salazar family five years ago for €35 million. That operation included the two buildings now for sale located at numbers 9 and 11 Carrera de San Jerónimo, close to Plaza del Sol.

In addition, Platinum is looking to divest another property from its portfolio: the building that it owns on Calle de Jacometrezo. That property contains 139 rooms, is going to be operated by Marriott’s Aloft chain and is due to open in April.

Platinum is managed by the Indian textile merchant Harry Mohinani and his wife Roshni Mohinani; it entered the Spanish market in conjunction with Juan Luis Segalerva.

Original story: Eje Prime (by I. P. Gestal)

Summary translation by: Carmel Drake

Madrid Gets Ready for the Opening of 2,000 Luxury Hotel Rooms

7 January 2018 – Expansión

The hotel market in Madrid is enjoying a happy time. After years as the ugly ducking of Europe’s capitals, with barely any major luxury brands operating in the city, 2,000 luxury rooms are scheduled to open in the city centre over the next two years. “Spain had a very moderate number of five-star hotels in comparison with other global capital cities. Nevertheless, the Town Hall of Madrid implemented a strategic plan for tourism, which boosted the image of the city as a global destination and that attracted international companies, which are taking the city to their own tourist clients”, says Javier García-Mateo, Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte.

“The existing luxury hotel stock comprises around 5,000 rooms and over the next few years, another 2,000 rooms will be added, of which 1,000 will be new and the rest will be in renovated properties”, adds Félix Villaverde, Manager at Deloitte Financial Advisory.

The first hotel already opened over Christmas: the US hotel chain Hyatt Hotels has returned to Madrid, specifically, to the heart of the city with the opening of Centric Gran Vía Madrid, a five-star establishment with 159 rooms – including 16 suites (…). With an investment of €30 million, Hyatt has returned to Madrid, after leaving the management of another five-star hotel in the capital in 2009: the Villamagna.

During the first quarter of 2018, another five-star establishment is expected to open. In this case, it will be the chain VP in Plaza de España. It will contain 214 rooms, spread over 17 storeys, following an investment of €90 million (…).

Projects on the lookout for a brand

Some of the other new projects planned for this year in the luxury hotel market in Madrid have not yet been defined. They involve plans for the former Hotel Velázquez and the property owned by the fund KKH in Plaza de las Descalzas.

Last May, the Salazar family sold the Gran Hotel Velázquez for around €60 million. Now, the new owner, the real estate group Didra, is looking for a hotel partner to operate the renovated property. In the case of KKH’s property in Madrid, the negotiations are more advanced. The former headquarters of the Monte de Piedad de Madrid is being renovated to open a five-star hotel and a dozen brands have expressed their interest in operating it. The Park Hyatt, The Peninsula and Saint Regis, from the Starwood group, are the favourites in the running, according to sources in the sector (…).

In addition to these projects that still need to be defined, in 2019, several luxury establishments are due to open, including, the first Four Seasons Hotel in Spain, which will open in the Canalejas complex with more than 200 rooms.

Moreover, a four-star, but nevertheless high-profile, hotel is being created by the Mallorcan chain RIU, which will restore Edificio España, in disuse for a decade, to open a modern urban hotel with 650 rooms.

Meanwhile, Marriott Starwood, the largest hotel chain in the world, has teamed up with the Indian investor Harry Mohiani to open a five-star hotel in the former Hotel Asturias, in the same square as the Four Seasons (Canalejas). That property will have 160 rooms (…).

Prices

The opening of these new luxury hotels will have an impact on room rates, which already saw a significant increase in this niche last year.

“Revenue per room (RevPar) in the five-star segment in Madrid has grown by 6.4% p.a. in recent years, almost four times more than the average in other European centres, due not only to the increase in rates but also the better performance in terms of occupancy rates”, say sources at Deloitte.

“The arrival of new luxury operators in Madrid will drive up the price of five-star hotels in the city. In fact, after carrying out comprehensive renovations, we have already seen examples of hotels that have increased their rates by 50%. The most exclusive hotels will charge €750 per night during certain periods of the year”, they add.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aina Purchases 50% Of Gran Hotel Velázquez From Didra Group

25 July 2017 – Expansión

Aina Hospitality – the fund promoted by Edmond de Rothschild and Jaume Tàpies – has purchased 50% of the iconic Gran Hotel Velázquez from the Didra Group. The property is located at number 62 of the Madrilenian street whose name it bears.

This asset, located in the neighbourhood of Salamanca, just a stone’s throw from the Retiro park and in the heart of Madrid’s golden mile, has been owned by the Didra Group for just a few months. It is currently undergoing a comprehensive renovation with the aim of ascending its category.

Together with the Didra Group, owned by the Ardid Villoslada family, Aina Hospitality will reposition the property, transforming it into a five-star hotel. Last year, the family office owned by the Ardid family reached an agreement with the Salazar family – the former owners of SOS Cuétara – to purchase this hotel for €63 million and now, almost a year later, it has decided to open up the share capital to Aina Hospitality.

At the moment, the four-star Gran Hotel Velázquez, has 143 rooms but it recently closed its doors to undergo a complete refurbishment.

Repositioning

Following its renovation, the hotel will have 111 rooms and suites, a restaurant, a rooftop terrace, cinema, bowling alley, luxury spa and fitness centre.

Tàpies, the CEO of Aina Hospitality, highlighted the excellent location of the hotel: “Madrid is a cultural, historical and leisure destination and it is a tourist and financial centre. This hotel is located in the centre of the city, close to some of the most important tourist attractions and the historical centre”.

The operation represents Aina Hospitality’s seventh investment in Europe and is in line with the investment strategy carried out by the manager to date. Aina Hospitality purchases high-end properties – with four- and five-stars ratings. In addition to Madrid, the fund has recently made acquisitions in Paris, Eindhoven, Vienna, Brussels and Berlin.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Salazar Family Sells Gran Hotel Velázquez To Didra Group For €58M

1 June 2017 – Idealista

The Salazar family, the former owner of SOS Cuétara, has just divested the last jewel in its hotel crown in Madrid: it has sold the Gran Hotel Velázquez for €58 million.

The establishment has 142 rooms, is located on the capital’s Golden Mile and its new owner is the Didra Group, famous for constructing residential developments in luxury urbanisations in Madrid. Didra plans to close the hotel in July for 18 months to undertake a comprehensive refurbishment.

The Salazar family, through Corporación Hispana Hotelera, owned four hotels in the capital in its heyday. However, it started to sell off its properties three years ago to finance the fine imposed on it by the courts for the embezzlements at SOS Cuétara, which went on for 10 years.

In this way, the family sold the Ada Palace, an establishment located on Madrid’s Gran Vía, close to Puerta del Sol, to an Asian investment group, for €35 million. In addition, it sold the María Elena Palace Hotel, which is also located in the heart of the capital.

The latest hotel to have been sold has been the Gran Hotel Velázquez. Last year, the Salazar family was about to close the deal with the Didra Group, but it was then thwarted because of the buyer’s lack of liquidity and because the courts suspended the operation. Nevertheless, the family has now received the green light to close the sale and so has just one hotel establishment left in its portfolio: the Hotel Osuna, located on the outskirts of the capital, near the airport.

This agreement is expected to be made public within the next few days.

Original story: Idealista

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