AC Hotels to Invest €5M in its First ‘Autograph’ in Valencia

Date: October 2018

Location: Calle Pascual y Genís, Valencia, Spain

Name: TBA – opening 2019

No. of Keys: 60+

Seller: The former CAM building in Valencia, on the central street, Calle Pascual y Genís. Until now, the tenant was the Valencian firm Join Contract, which was granted use of the property by Solvia Group (Banco Sabadell) for 30 years in July, and which is now placing that use into the hands of AC Hotels.

Buyer: AC Hotels, owned by the Navarran businessman Antonio Catalán, has acquired the rights to operate the hotel.

AC Hotels competed against other major chains in the sector including NH and Barceló, as well as the local chain Grupo Intur, owned by the Gimeno family, which controls a large proportion of the major hotels in Benicàssim.

AC Hotels, which already has a hotel very close by, decided to push hard for this site to whereby expand its business with the construction of what will be its first luxury hotel in Valencia.

It will be the first Marriott Autograph hotel in Valencia, although the firm has other luxury hotels operating under Marriott in Madrid and Barcelona.

Sources said that AC Hotels is going to invest almost €5 million in the renovation of the iconic building.

If there are no delays, the building work will begin before the end of the year. The execution of the work will be carried out by the Valencian firm Join Contract, the same entity that has transferred the use of the asset to AC Hotels for 30 years.

Although the project is still in its preliminary phase, some details have been published about the future hotel. With a surface area of 4,500 m2 (580 m2 per floor), the hotel will have around 60 rooms, including suites and standard rooms.

There will be a restaurant and hall on the ground floor, and there will be a small swimming pool for guests on the roof. The building will have nine floors in total, two of which will be used for parking.

AC Hoteles, from Antonio Catalán, is one of the leading chains in the hotel sector in Spain. It was founded in 1997 by AC, who previously sold the NH chain to an investment fund for €70 million. After founding AC Hoteles, Catalán sold half of his shares to the chain Marriott for €80 million. Today they have more than 140 hotels open or under development around the world.

THPT Comment: Shrewd businessman Mr AC…and great move with Marriott, whilst retaining 50%.

First Seen: Aura Real Estate