HVS Hospitality Enews Europe - W/e 3 October 2003
One Across In Barcelona: Begins With HVS And Might End In W - HVS International's Madrid office has advised on the feasibility, branding and concept design of a landmark 425-room, five-star hotel that is to rise as part of a €156.9 million mixed-use development in Barcelona. Three construction companies - FCC, Comsa and OHL - and the real estate firm Sacresa were gathered together by G&G Hospitality Services and brought into the sight of the...
One Across In Barcelona: Begins With HVS And Might End In W - HVS International's Madrid office has advised on the feasibility, branding and concept design of a landmark 425-room, five-star hotel that is to rise as part of a €156.9 million mixed-use development in Barcelona. Three construction companies - FCC, Comsa and OHL - and the real estate firm Sacresa were gathered together by G&G Hospitality Services and brought into the sight of the city's Port Authority, which granted the team a 30-year concession on the site; the design of the project is due to renowned Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill. It is highly likely that the sail-shaped property will be operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts; if so, the hotel could become the first in Europe to take the company's W brand.
Nice Start In France For Park Inn - Rezidor SAS Hospitality has decided that France should be the next country conquered by the marauding Park Inn brand. The 150-room Park Inn Nice has duly opened and has straightaway submitted to a thorough renovation, which should be complete by next spring. Warmer climes will also encourage a second hotel into bud in 2004 for Turkish industrial concern Diler Holding. It is to invest between US$20 million and US$25 million in the construction of a 600-room property in the western Turkish city of Bodrum. Diler might also build another hotel in the southwestern port of Antalya as company for its Cornelia De Luxe Resort. The lower temperatures in Finland are of little concern to those transacting hotels, especially if like investment company Sponda you have your business suit well stuffed with paper money. It has realised a reported €6.4 million from the sale to La Tour Securities of Lönnrotinkatu 29 in Helsinki; the property serves as a 48-room, four-star hotel under the operational control of LordHotel.
De Vere Group In Heaven And Hull - De Vere Group has drawn down the shutters on another financial year but has left shareholders a comforting note in the window. Its trading update for the 52 weeks to 28 September showed that like-for-like RevPAR at the De Vere Hotels had climbed 2.4%, thanks to strong demand for leisure breaks over the summer, and had risen 2.1% at the Village Hotel & Leisure Clubs, courtesy of a 2.1% increase in like-for-like room rate. Like-for-like turnover from these properties was up 4.6%, and the De Vere Hotels boasted a rise of 2.4%. Fans of the company's hotels might soon be reaching for their maps and circling the city of Hull, where De Vere is reportedly interested in establishing a 123-room hotel on the Priory Park development.
Eton Group Leads Two Hotels To The Wall - If you are a townhouse and not a lifestyle property and you belong to the Eton Group, it could be time you took heed of reports and looked for a new owner. A shift in the company's emphasis means that it has put two of its London hotels up for sale. Those departing the fold were the founder members of the portfolio: the 43-room The Colonnade in Little Venice, which has a reported asking price of more than £10 million, and the 49-room The Academy in Bloomsbury, for which offers of more than £8 million are invited. The sale would reduce Eton Group's hotel portfolio to three, although Managing Director Peter Tyrie is said to be hopeful that he can double the remaining portfolio over the next few years with the addition of hotels in London and outside the UK.
Sol Meliá Taps Symbol - As part of its asset management strategy, Sol Meliá has sold the Sol Patos Hotel for €16.8 million and has in the process generated for itself a capital gain on the three-star property of €11.3 million. Symbol Hoteles will be operating the 277-room hotel, in Benalmádena, west of the southern Spanish city of Málaga, from November. Barceló Hotels & Resorts' strategy is to have 200 hotels by 2005. One of the 60 or so hotels it will need to open if it is to reach that number will arrive in Madrid at the end of 2005; the Spanish press reports that Barceló will invest €18 million in a 108-room, four-star property that it will operate under lease from real estate firm Julcam 19. Meanwhile, Magic Life is set for its first glimpse of Spanish sunshine on 1 November, the day it is due to open the 383-room Trendorado Classic club on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries.
Which Are The In Cities For City Inn? - It might have just opened a 460-room hotel in Westminster, but City Inn clearly has no thoughts about retiring to the backbenches. With a budget of some £100 million at his disposal, Managing Director David Orr can fulfil pledges that reportedly include the building of a second hotel in central London of similar size to the City Inn Westminster, itself the largest new-build hotel that the capital had seen in 30 years. The company will also be campaigning in the provinces; Manchester is reportedly set to welcome a £20 million 284-room hotel early next year, with Mr Orr apparently also keen to enter Leeds and Edinburgh.
Hilton Wants More From The Middle East - Hilton International wants to double its operational revenue in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. To further this end, the company wants to have another eight hotels open in the Middle East by 2006. In Dubai, meanwhile, an official opening ceremony welcomed the arrival of the 292-room Mina A' Salam hotel to the Madinat Jumeirah development. The luxury hotel is one of two that Jumeirah International will be opening there. A similar ceremony was held in the Libyan capital Tripoli, which has seen Corinthia Hotels International open the 300-room, de luxe five-star Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel.
Clear Views Of Mars In Birmingham - Property developer Taylor Woodrow has entered the orbit of the Mars Pension Fund, which wants to submit plans by next February for a £100 million redevelopment of Auchinleck House in central Birmingham. The proposed mixed-use scheme, on which work could start by the end of 2004, includes a hotel of 250 to 300 beds. Further northwest, in Southport on Merseyside, Whitbread has won approval to build a £3.8 million 59-bed Travel Inn on the £35 million Ocean Plaza mixed-use complex; the hotel should be open by next July. On the opposite side of the Irish Sea, meanwhile, the family run 26-room, four-star Rock Glen Country House Hotel, in Clifden, Co. Galway, has been put up for sale with an asking price of some €4 million. And across in Scotland, Glasgow is letting the good times roll: the city has welcomed a 106-room Campanile hotel.
Scottish & Newcastle's Wacky Races - Scottish & Newcastle was at the finish line, all tense and expectant, only to feel the deadline-day tape fall limp in its hand as it glanced down the home straight and saw the remaining competitors in the race for the Managed Retail division frantically changing horses. Pub company Laurel and investment bank Nomura failed to negotiate their own financial hurdle, leaving Nomura to make its own way to the line and Laurel to hitch a ride with Cinven. The private equity firm had also been a faller, parting company with fellow private equity firm CVC, which retained sufficient composure to saddle up with the bookies' favourite, pub company Spirit. All three contenders, who previously thought themselves well clear, will now find they have leisure entrepreneur Trevor Hemmings coming up on the rails after he rejoined the race. A separate struggle looks like breaking out in the winner's enclosure, where Whitbread has been joined by Travelodge. Each is eager to be the one that welcomes the victorious racer and persuades it to part with the Premier Lodge hotels portion of the prize.
Contract Killer For Malmaison's Profits - To what does Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB) attribute the pre-tax loss of £10.5 million returned by the Malmaison hotel chain over the year to 30 June? On this occasion there has been no need to mention the war in Iraq; even the Sars virus is immune from blame. No, money is at the root of this evil: the £7 million MWB paid in September 2002 to prise Rezidor SAS Hospitality away from its 18-year management contract. The Malmaison chain now has some 745 rooms, a stock that will be swollen before the year is out by the opening of a hotel at Charterhouse Square in London. However, before this happy event, which MWB predicts will lead to improved performance by the lifestyle chain, the company is left to ponder a fall in occupancy in the second half over the first of two percentage points, to 71%.
Mir Finds Space In St Petersburg - Mir Hotels is reported to have started work on a US$5 million 80-room, threestar hotel in the Russian city of St Petersburg with the hope that one day it will have a chain of such properties. A hotel which from its name sounds as though it belongs in the Ukraine rather than in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Albena is set to be renovated; local tourist company Albena will invest a reported US$6 million in the Hotel Kiev to raise the property from two-star to four-star status. But it is a Russian company, Njega Tours, that will be renovating the As Hotel in Peraziæa Do on the coast of Montenegro. The company will be spending a reported US$17.2 million over the next 18 months to raise the 400-bed hotel to a five-star standard.
Queens Moat Houses - Trading in the company's shares was temporarily suspended on 29 September, with the price at 8.5p, after the company failed to issue its interim results by the required 27 September deadline. The lengthy discussions on the company's debt rescheduling provoked the failure.
Sol Meliá -Resort hotel association Zontur reported that hoteliers operating in major Spanish resorts were forced to cut prices this summer to stimulate demand.
InterContinental Hotels Group - The share price remained depressed amid continuing concerns for a weakening US dollar.
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