Ritz Carlton Vienna: Ambitious Hotel Construction Projects In Prime Location

Hamburg -- Vienna sees an unmatched boom of overnight stays and new hotels. According to TOPHOTELPROJECTS, the leading information service for global hotel construction projects (www.tophotelprojects.com) currently counts 17 new pipeline projects in the Austrian capital. The Ritz-Carlton Vienna is an outstanding new building project located nearby the historic "Schubertring Palais". First guests will arrive in autumn this year (TOPHOTELPROJECTS Nr. 2115, 2020 rooms). This hotel project was already set to open as a Shangri-La one year ago. But shortly before the grand opening in February and caused by several construction delays, the Asian chain pulled back and left its employees and excited hotel guests out in the rain. This an unprecedented incident, but Marriott International - parent company of Ritz-Carlton – very quickly took the opportunity to add a luxury property to its portfolio.

Project developer Bau Austria Immobilien (BAI) sold the hotel to the new Kazakhstani investor Venry Capital. The company director Timur Issatayev is private equity specialist and manages, according to "Die Presse", an asset pool of approximately 3,5 billion dollars. This year Venry Capital already bought the Ritz-Carlton Moscow. Currently Ritz-Carlton, part of the Marriott enterprise, operates 77 hotels worldwide.

Another top hotel project in Vienna is the Kempinski Hotel at the Palais Hansen (TOPHOTELPROJECTS Nr. 3320, 152 rooms). The marvelous, heritage-protected town palace, which currently undergoes a major refurbishment, will open its doors in spring 2013 to be the first Kempinski hotel in Vienna. All in all the hotel features 153 rooms and suites as well as two restaurants, two bars, a fitness center, a Kempinski "The Spa", various meeting and conference facilities as well as 17 exclusive residence apartments. The opening of the Palais Hansen Kempinski Vienna next year will, alongside to the Kempinski Hotel "Das Tirol" in Jochberg near Kitzbühl, mark the chain's second property in the Alpine Republic.

The Palais Hansen Kempinski captivates ones immediate attention with its modern architecture in the ancient building. The three courtyards are all covered with glass with the lobby lounge located in the middle. The stylish designed rooms will have an average size of 40 to 45 square meters, the suites up to 300 square meters (President Suite).

The Four Seasons brand also considers entering Vienna. According to media reports a centrally located, former court building will rebuild for round about 100 million dollar (TOPHOTELPROJECTS Nr. 2765, 165 rooms). The opening is scheduled for late 2014.

In total there are more than 400 available hotels in Vienna, ranging from budget to luxury, privately operated as well as branded, mentions a recent report issued by Christie + Co. The average room capacity of all hotels in Vienna amounts to 67 rooms. According to Christie + Co barely more than half of all hotel rooms in Vienna are branded hotel rooms; the other half is under private management. The largest hotel room offering of all 23 municipal districts in Vienna is concentrated the 1^st inner city district with approximately 4,800 hotel rooms. This constitutes nearly 17 percent of all available hotel rooms in Vienna. The neighboring districts (2^nd untl 9^th; except Margareten), as well as Favoriten (10^th district), Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus (15^th district) and Donaustadt (22^nd district) have more than 1,200 rooms on offer.